Kinetic analysis for the non-isothermal decomposition of un-irradiated and γ-irradiated zirconium acetylacetonate

Abstract

Kinetic studies for the non-isothermal decomposition of un-irradiated and γ-irradiated zirconium acetylacetonate, Zr(acac)4, with 10 3 KGy total γ-ray dose were carried out in static air. The results show that decomposition proceeds through multiple steps and ends with the formation of ZrO2 as a final solid residue without any significant changes in the thermal behaviour between un-irradiated and γ-irradiated samples of Zr(acac)4. The non-isothermal data for both unirradiated and γ-irradiated Zr(acac)4 were analysed using both model-free and model-fitting approaches. Irregular variation of Ea with α indicates a complex decomposition mechanism involving multi-step processes including melting, sublimation and degradation and more than one model could be suggested to explain the results. Calcination of Zr(acac)4 at 600°C for five hours led to the formation of ZrO2 monodispersed nanoparticles, characterised by X-ray diffraction, FT-IR, SEM and TEM. This is the first example of preparing ZrO2 nanoparticles by solid state thermal decomposition of Zr(acac)4. © 2011 Science Reviews 2000 Ltd.