Synthesis and Thermoanalytical Investigation of an Amorphous Praseodymium Citrate

The present research describes the synthesis of the citrate of Pr by the amorphous citrate method and the study of the thermal decomposition of the complex in air, nitrogen and oxygen, in order to identify the final compounds and the intermediates obtained during the decomposition. A special study was dedicated to the thermal decomposition of the Pr-carbonate octahydrate used in the synthesis as starting material. The thermal decomposition of the lanthanide citrate was investigated mainly by thermogravimetry, differential thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy. The results showed that the complex decomposes to PrO_1.83 with formation of an intermediate oxycarbonate compound in air or directly to the oxide in oxygen; in nitrogen atmosphere, amorphous products were obtained after thermal decomposition.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.Presented at the Solid State Chemistry 2000 Conference in September 2000, Prague, Czech Republic