A miniaturized effusion cell adapted to a Sorpt~on LKB microcatorimeter has been designed, built and tested. Vaporization is performed isothermally into a vacuum through a small orifice permitting a vapour pressure very close to the equilibrium values. The cell has been tested by measuring the enthalpies of vaporization at 298.15 K of reference liquid compounds (water, benzene, propanol-1, propanol-2) with a reproducibility better than 1%. Enthalpies of vaporization of butanol-1 and deuterated water have also been determined.Accurate knowledge of the enthalpies of vaporization of both liquid and solid compounds is of greatest importance in a wide spectrum of thermodynamic calculations, from enthalpies of formation [1] to enthalpies of solvation [2]. This accuracy is the more indispensable the weaker the interactions concerned are. In particular, AvapH values are employed to obtain enthalpies of solvation from solution heats at infinite dilution, allowing a closer description of the solute-solvent interactions [3, 4], as well as the possible partition of different contributions (e.g. solvent restructuring effect and hydrophobic interactions).The additive character of the vaporization enthalpies has been proved but the correlations so far established [5][6][7][8] are restricted to liquid compounds of relatively small dimensions and simple molecular structure (e.g. with linear chain substituents). Direct and very precise determinations of vaporization enthalpies are thus increasingly required, particularly in connection with the more widespread employment of highsensitivity microcalorimeters.Several experimental techniques for the calorimetric determination of vaporization enthalpies for both liquid and solid compounds have been developed in the last twenty years |9-16], Part are based on the measurement of the heat required to vaporize a well-known amount of substance into a vacuum under defined conditions as close as possible to the equilibrium values. These direct methods have proved useful, but their 9