Kopp's law

Kopp's law can refer to either of two relationships discovered by the German chemist Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp (1817–1892).

1. Kopp found "that the molecular heat capacity of a solid compound is the sum of the atomic heat capacities of the elements composing it; the elements having atomic heat capacities lower than those required by the Dulong–Petit law retain these lower values in their compounds."
2. In studying organic compounds, Kopp found a regular relationship between boiling points and the number of CH₂ groups present.

Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp

Kopp–Neumann law

The Kopp–Neumann law, named for Kopp and Franz Ernst Neumann, is a common approach for determining the specific heat C (in J·kg⁻¹·K⁻¹) of compounds using the following equation:

$$C=\sum _{i=1}^{N}C_{i}f_{i},$$

where N is the total number of compound constituents, and C_i and f_i denote the specific heat and mass fraction of the i-th constituent. This law works surprisingly well at room-temperature conditions, but poorly at elevated temperatures.

See also

• Rule of mixtures

References

• Frederick Seitz, The Modern Theory of Solids, McGraw-Hill, New York, USA, 1940, ASIN: B000OLCK08

Further reading

• Thorpe, T. E. (1901). "The Life Work of Hermann Kopp". Memorial Lectures Delivered Before the Chemical Society. 25: 774–815.