Low temperature heat capacity and magnetic properties of UF3

The low temperature heat capacity of UF(3) has been measured using an adiabatic low temperature calorimeter in the temperature range from 10 to 350 K. These data are complemented at the lowest temperature region with data obtained with a Quantum Design PPMS-14 device in the temperature range from 0.5 to 20 K. Good agreement between both techniques has been found, and from these experimental results the absolute entropy of UF(3) at 298.15 K has been determined as 126.8 ± 2.5 J K(-1) mol(-1). On the basis of the specific heat data and the magnetization measurements performed on a SQUID device, a transition at 1.59 K attributed to Curie temperature of a ferromagnetic transition has been found in this study. This observation makes UF(3) a unique compound with an unusually low ferromagnetic ordering temperature.