Kinetic studies for the non-isothermal decomposition of un-irradiated and γ-irradiated ruthenium(III) acetylacetonate

Abstract

Kinetic studies for the non-isothermal decomposition of un-irradiated and γ-irradiated ruthenium(III) acetylacetonate in air were carried out. The results show that the decomposition proceeds in one major step in the temperature range of 150–250 °C with the formation of RuO₂ as a final solid residue for un-irradiated Ru(acac)₃. For γ -irradiated Ru(acac)₃ with 10² KGy total γ-ray dose, the decomposition goes eventually to completion with almost 100% decomposition and proceeds in one major step, which contains four overlapping decomposition stages in the temperature range of 200–320 °C. The kinetics is shown to be non-isothermal, using both model-fitting and model-free approaches. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction techniques were employed to follow the chemical composition of the solid residue obtained at different temperatures.

Keywords:

• Ru(acac)₃
• non-isothermal decomposition
• γ-irradiation
• nanoparticles

Acknowledgements

The main author (R.M. Mahfouz) is thankful to SABIC for financial support and the use of some measurement facilities.