Experimental heat capacity of solid hydrogen as a function of molar volume

Constant volume heat capacity measurements have been made on six solid hydrogen samples with low orthohydrogen concentrations. The measurements extend from approximately 1.5 K to the melting line, with molar volumes ranging from 22.787 cm3/mole to 16.193 cm3/mole. Although clustering of the ortho molecules was observed, the low temperature heat capacity anomaly due to the orthohydrogen pairs could be described quite well by the assumption of a fixed distribution. The data were corrected to obtain a lattice heat capacity which on extrapolation to T = 0 yielded Debye temperatures and a volume dependent Grueneisen parameter. A modified Mie-Grueneisen approximation was used to define a volume and temperature dependent Grueneisen parameter which was used to calculate the equation of state, P(V,T), and isothermal bulk modulus, B/sub T/(V,T), for the six isochores. An extrapolation of the equation of state to T = 0 and P = 0 by two different methods yields a molar volume which, when compared with other determinations, gives a recommended value of 23.20 +- 0.05 cm3/mole. A rapid increase in the conversion rate of orthohydrogen to parahydrogen was observed at approximately theta/sub o/12. The molar volumes along the melting curve also have been determined directly for the first time in this volume range. These results have been used to show that a low temperature Lindemann melting relation is only approximately valid for solid hydrogen to 50 K