Kinetics of the thermal decomposition of cadmium carbonate (CdCO3)

Cadmium carbonate used in the study was prepared from cadmium chloride, ammonium carbonate and ammonia. The X-ray powder diffraction, infrared spectral and chemical analysis conducted on the product show that the sample is of analytically acceptable purity. The thermal decomposition kinetics of cadmium carbonate was then studied by using the isothermal thermogravimetric method under a flow of dry nitrogen gas. The decomposition kinetics is best described by a two-dimensional phase boundary reaction mechanism (R ₂). An activation energy (E _a) of 135.006 kJ·mol^?1 and natural logarithm of the frequency factor (lnZ) of 16.754 were obtained in the range of 9 temperatures (400, 390, 380, 370, 360, 350, 340, 330 and 320°C).