Heat capacity measurements on uranium–cerium mixed oxides by differential scanning calorimetry

Uranium–cerium mixed oxides of three different compositions (U0.2Ce0.8)O2, (U0.5Ce0.5)O2 and (U0.8Ce0.2)O2, were prepared by combustion synthesis and characterized by XRD. The compositional characterization was done by ICP-AES. Heat capacity measurements employed a heat flux type differential scanning calorimeter from 280 to 820 K. The heat capacity values of (U0.2Ce0.8)O2, (U0.5Ce0.5)O2 and (U0.8Ce0.2)O2 at 298 K are 62.8, 64.2 and 70.1 J K−1 mol−1, respectively. Enthalpy increment, entropy and Gibbs energy function were computed from the heat capacity data.