Studies on the Non-Isothermal Decomposition of H3PMo12O40·xH2O and H4PVMo11O40·yH2O

This paper reports a comparative study of the non-isothermal decompositions of the heteropolyacids HPM and HPVM, with structures consisting of Keggin units (KUs). Non-isothermal analysis at low heating rates demonstrated the existence of 4 crystal hydrate species, depending on the temperature. The stability domains of the anhydrous forms of HPM and HPVM were found to be 150–380°C, respectively. Processing of the TG curves obtained at different heating rates by the Ozawa method revealed that the decomposition of anhydrous HPM takes place according to a unitary mechanism, whilst for anhydrous HPVM two mechanisms are observed. Thus, the first part of the constitution water is lost simultaneously with the departure of vanadium from the KU as VO²⁺, while the second part is lost at higher temperatures as in the case HPM. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.