Heat Capacity of Hydrous Silicate Melts

Abstract:

We determined the heat capacities of four series of glasses and liquids of basaltic and basaltic andesite compositions including two natural remelts from Fuego volcano, Guatemala, and two Fe-free analogs. The samples are low-alkali, Ca- and Mg-rich aluminosilicates with non-bridging oxygen to tetrahedrally-coordinated cation ratios (NBO/T) ranging between 0.33 and 0.67. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements were performed at atmospheric pressure between room temperature and ≈100 K above the glass transition for hydrous samples and up to ≈1800 K for dry samples. The water contents investigated range up to 5.34 wt.% (16.4 mol%).

Water does not measurably affect the heat capacity of glasses (T <T_g). At the glass transition, there is a ≈30-40% change in heat capacity, which generally gets larger with increasing water content and with decreasing polymerization. The onset of the glass transition in hydrous samples also occurs below the Dulong-Petit limit of 3R/g atom.

We see little change in liquid heat capacity with increasing water content; hydrous liquid heat capacities are within 3-6% of the dry liquid, at low temperatures just above the glass transition. However, dry liquids show a decrease in heat capacity with increasing temperature above the glass transition, from supercooled to superliquidus temperatures. Liquid heat capacity values just above the glass transition range between 95-100 J/mol K, whereas liquid heat capacity values at superliquidus temperatures are between 85-91 J/mol K.

Comparison with other studies of the heat capacity of hydrous glasses and liquids shows that the liquid heat capacity of strongly depolymerized samples (NBO/T ≥ 0.8) increases with increasing water content, whereas depolymerized samples (0.4 ≤ NBO/T ≤ 0.8) or polymerized samples (NBO/T ≤ 0.4) generally show little change or a moderate decrease in liquid heat capacity with increasing water content.