The thermal treatment of Fe203 -[.65H20 gives rise to sharp dehydration weight-change waves (310M70 K and 470-670 K) which correspond to the loss of loosely-bound and stronglybound water, respectively. Analysis of the thermal waves was perlormed by the method of Satava and Skvara (1969), the modified method of Coats and Redfern (1964) and the method of Blazejowski et al. (1983), and by applying a least squares straight line fit to the data. The/I 2 and /13 decomposition mechanisms predominate in the first dehydration step, whereas at/ F~ mechanism seems the best to describe dehydration of the structural water. Activation energies of 21 kJ. mol-~ and 95 kJ. mol -J are estimated for the first and second steps, respectively.The analysis of thermograviroetric curves has been the subject of a large number of publications [1 16]. It aims at deriving certain kinetic parameters from a single TG curve. These are: order and mechanism of reaction, activation energy and Arrhenius frequency factor.To describe the rate of weight change, several expressions have been used to cover different solid-state decomposition mechanisms, e.g. phase boundary-controlled processes, nucleation processes, nucleation followed by linear or bulk growth of nuclei, or diffusion-controlled processes. The most predominant or probable mechanism would be that which satisfies optimization of the fractional weightchange data throughout the whole range of temperature considered.The thermal analysis of hydrated iron oxide has been reported by some authors [17,18]. Loss of water usually occurs in two temperature ranges, giving a lowtemperature effect and a high temperature effect. The former is attributed to the loss of physically adsorbed water (loosely bound), and the latter to the loss of structural water (strongly bound). However, a distinction between these two categories can be made not only via their positions in the TG or DTA curves, but also through the activation energy associated with each dehydration.John Wiler & Sons, Limited, Chichester AkadOmiai Kiad6. Budapest