Determination of the optimum conditions for the synthesis of praseodymium(III) chloride

In the present work, we have synthesized praseodymium(III) chloride, PrCl3, from the praseodymium oxide, Pr6O11, by dry method in the presence of ammonium chloride, NH4Cl. This study includes the establishment of an assembly synthesis under inert gas. The thermal decomposing process of pure NH4Cl was investigated by TG–DTG. The results showed that NH4Cl begins to lose weight at 188 °C, large loss of weight ending at 302 °C when NH4Cl is heated at the rate of 10 °C/min under N2 atmosphere. For chlorination, NH4Cl participates directly in the reaction, and HCl decomposed from NH4Cl also contributes to the chlorination reaction. The influence of various synthesis parameters (temperature, contact time and chemical composition) on the reaction yield was studied, and the optimum conditions for synthesis were, thus, determined and discussed.