Abstract
Kinetic studies for the non-isothermal decomposition of un-irradiated and y-irradiated zirconium acetylacetonate, Zr(acac)4, with 103 KGy total y-ray dose were carried out in static air. The results show that decomposition proceeds through multiple steps and ends with the formation of Zr Oz as a final solid residue without any significant changes in the thermal behaviour between un-irradiated and y-irradiated samples of Zr(acac)4. The non-isothermal data for both un- irradiated and y-irradiated Zr(acac)4 were analysed using both model-free and model-fitting approaches. Irregular variation of Ea with α indicates a complex decomposition mechanism involving multi-step processes including melting, sublimation and degradation and more than one model could be suggested to explain the results. Calcination of Zr(acac)4 at 600° C for five hours led to the formation of Zr02 monodispersed nanoparticles, characterised by X-ray diffraction, FT-IR, SEM and TEM. This is the first example of preparing Zr02nanoparticles by solid state thermal decomposition of Zr(acac)4.