Heat capacities, enthalpies of phase transitions, and derived thermodynamic properties over the temperature range 5 < (T/K) < 442 were determined with adiabatic calorimetry for tert-butylbenzene (TBB) {Chemical Abstracts Service registry number (CASRN) [98-06-6]} and 1,4-di-tert-butylbenzene (DTBB) {CASRN [1012-72-2]}. A crystal to plastic crystal transition very near the triple-point temperature of DTBB was observed. New vapor pressures near the triple-point temperature are also reported for DTBB for the liquid and crystal states. These new measurements, when combined with published results. allow calculation of the thermodynamic properties for the ideal gas state for both compounds. The contribution of the tert-butyl group to the entropy of the ideal gas is determined quantitatively here for the first time based on the calorimetric results over the temperature range 298.15 < (T/K) < 600. Comparisons with literature values are shown for all measured and derived properties, including entropies for the ideal gas derived from quantum chemical calculations. Published by Elsevier Ltd.