The thermal decomposition of MgCI 2 9 6H20 (non-dried and partly dried) and the kinetics of the process were studied by DTA, TG, DTG, I R, X-ray diffraction'and chemical analysis of Mg and CI. The reactions which occurred in the course of the thermal analysis were identified as dehydration (in steps), thermal hydrolysis of MgC12"H20 and dehydrochloridization of magnesium hydroxy chlorides, Melting of the phases MgCIz-6HzO, MgC/2" 4HzO and MgC12 was also identified in the thermal curves. Thermal weight loss continued up to 800 ~ in flowing air or nitrogen, but only up to 700 "C in static air. MgO was the end-product of thermal treatment in both cases.The kinetic parameters of the reaction, the activation energy E, pre-exponential factor A and apparent order of reaction b, were computed by several methods. The activation energy and the apparent reaction order of dehydration were found to increase with decreasing hydration number of the Mg. The dehydrochloridization process had the highest activation energy, The thermal decomposition of magnesium chloride hexahydrate has recently been the subject of several studies [1-6}. These studies have elucidated some points which were not cleared up in previous work [7][8][9][10], especially concerning the influence of the experimental conditions on the dehydration and hydrolysis processes. Very Iittle has been done to determine the kinetic parameters of the reactions, however. In the present study the kinetics of the processes are investigated by applying three methods of analysis to DTA and DTG curves: (1) the method of Freeman and Carroll, (2) the initial rate method, and (3) Chen's "half-width" method. In each of these methods, the activation energy E, preexponential factor A and apparent order of reaction b are computed. From a comparison of the results, the reliability of the data can be evaluated. In order to identify the products obtained at various stages of the thermal analysis, infrared
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