Kinetics and mechanism of the dehydration of α-NiSO4·6H2O

Abstract

A study of the thermal dehydration of α-NiSO4·6H2O has been performed by power compensation differential scanning calorimetry in flowing nitrogen. No significant differences in behaviour were observed using either uncrushed crystalline powders or single crystal slabs cleaved parallel to {001}. In good agreement with previous findings, the kinetic analysis of the thermal curves confirms the validity of an=2 Avrami-Erofeev equation (AE2) in isothermal experiments at low (338–343 K) temperatures or in the initial portions of variable temperature runs. The kinetic obedience is however of an ‘order of reaction’ type for the main portion of the variable temperature runs and, for isothermal experiments, in the upper part of the temperature range investigated. Values of activation energies and frequency factors are reported. Parallel studies by optical microscopy showed relevant changes of surface texture when partially (thermally or vacuum) dehydrated {001} cleaved surface were submitted to rehydration. This phenomenon (named orange peel formation) indicates that a dehydrated layer forms on the crystal surfaces preceding the appearance of product crystals (germination or nucleation). Microscopy also revealed that reaction goes on inside the crystal and that product formation takes place in the bulk phase, following lattice collapse in experiments at high heating rates. Combined with previous results, these new experimental findings allow us to formulate a mechanism for the present transformation, comprising three main rate processes: