Effect of Ca(II) on the multistep kinetic behavior of thermally induced oxidative decomposition of cerium(III) oxalate to CeO2(IV)

• The kinetic and mechanistic features of the synthesis of micro structural rods of CeO2.
• Oxidative thermal decomposition of cerium oxalate and the effect of mixing with calcium oxalate.
• The kinetic behavior of mixed sample passes through more complex reaction pathways.
• The kinetic deconvolution method is used to illustrate the physico geometrical behavior of the reaction.

The kinetic and mechanistic features of the synthesis of micro structural rods of CeO2 via the oxidative thermal decomposition of cerium oxalate in air and the effect of dry mixing of 10 w/w (%) calcium oxalate with cerium oxalate upon the reaction pathway and mechanism were investigated by thermo analytical techniques under linear non-isothermal condition. The physico-geometrical kinetic behavior of the reaction was illustrated through detailed kinetic analyses using the kinetic deconvolution method. The morphological observations of reactant solids at different reaction stages were used for complimenting the physico-geometrical kinetic behavior. The in situ Ca2+ interaction and the consequent increase in the internal gaseous pressure shifted the temperature region of reaction to higher values for the mixed sample. Even though both the samples allow multistep kinetic behavior, mixed sample passes through more complex reaction pathways.