Why does Ammonia have such a high specific heat capacity?

[pjbeierle]

I am quite confused by this, because I have not yet found a compound that has a higher one. My understanding is that specific heat capacity of a molecule is based on a combination of the number of degrees of freedom the molecule has and the number of vibrational modes. As for the second factor, there are plenty of compounds out there that are larger with more bonded atoms, which would lead to more ways the molecule could oscillate. Any kind of clarification would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mathman]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_capacity#Theory_of_heat_capacity

This may help.