Debye Model - Debye Temperature Table

Debye Temperature Table

Even though the Debye model is not completely correct, it gives a good approximation for the low temperature heat capacity of insulating, crystalline solids where other contributions (such as highly mobile conduction electrons) are negligible. For metals, the electron contribution to the heat is proportional to, which at low temperatures dominates the Debye result for lattice vibrations. In this case, the Debye model can only be said to approximate for the lattice contribution to the specific heat. The following table lists Debye temperatures for several pure elements:

The Debye model's fit to experimental data is often phenomenologically improved by allowing the Debye temperature to become temperature dependent; for example, the value for water ice increases from about 222 K to 300 K as the temperature goes from Absolute zero to about 100 K.