A New Mechanism of Sodium Zirconate Formation

Abstract

The objective of this study was to synthesize sodium zirconate (Na₂ZrO₃) from the thermal decomposition of two reactants; sodium acetate (CH₃COONa) and Zirconium(IV) acetylacetonate (Zr(C₅H₇O₂)₄). The Na₂ZrO₃ formation mechanism has not been previously reported as it is shown in this work. Also, the reagents are soluble in ethanol; making it possible to apply the mechanism proposed in a spray pyrolysis process. The solid-state reaction was derived from the thermal decomposition of its precursors through the thermogravimetric analysis techniques (TG). The desired product formation was proven by means of an x-ray diffraction technique while the gaseous by-products of the reaction were analyzed using of the IR spectroscopy method (FTIR). Solid-state reaction has three significant weight losses and the TG technique displays these behaviors. The kinetic reaction study was completed using the determination of the activation energy, the pre-exponential factor and the reaction order of such regions. Finally, it was numerically proven that the chemical reaction behavior is well reproduced using the Arrhenius-type kinetic model.

Keywords: Sodium zirconate, Arrhenius equation, solid-state reaction, thermal decomposition.