DSC can be used to determine the enthalpies of formation for the 3d transition metal oxalates

Differential scanning calorimetry has been used to measure the enthalpy of formation for manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper and zinc oxalate. By adding a flameless combustion catalyst (CuO) and using scans of 2 K min⁻¹ in static air, the values determined for each compound agreed to within 1% of the critically reviewed values reported previously. Confident in the approach's validity, values for metal oxalates that did not have accepted values in the compilation are also presented. This approach has the potential to measure reliable Δ_fH values for any compound where the products can be fully oxidized during the decomposition.