Nicotinic acid and anhydrous potassium acetate were chosen as the reactants, and a novel compound—anhydrous potassium nicotinate was synthesized by the method of room temperature solid phase synthesis. FTIR and X-ray powder diffraction techniques were applied to characterize its structure. Low-temperature heat capacities of the K(C₆H₄NO₂)(s) were measured with a small sample precision automated adiabatic calorimeter over the temperature range from 77 to 400 K. A polynomial equation of the heat capacities as a function of the temperature was fitted by the least square method. Based on the fitted polynomial, the smoothed heat capacities and thermodynamic functions of the compound relative to the standard reference temperature 298.15 K were calculated and tabulated at the interval of 5 K. A reasonable thermochemical cycle was designed, and the standard molar enthalpies of dissolution for the reactants and products of the solid phase reaction in the selected solvent were measured by an isoperibol solution-reaction calorimeter, respectively. In addition, the enthalpy change of the solid phase reaction was calculated to be (25.87±0.47) kJ•mol^－1 from the data of the above standard molar enthalpies of dissolution. Finally, the standard molar enthalpy of formation of anhydrous potassium nicotinate K(C₆H₄NO₂)(s) was determined to be ＝－(560.57±1.09) kJ•mol^－1 in accordance with Hess law.

Key words: anhydrous potassium nicotinate, adiabatic calorimetry, low-temperature heat capacity, isoperibol solution-reaction calorimetry, standard molar enthalpy of formation