Thermal dehydration and decomposition of nickel chloride hydrate (NiCl2·xH2O)

The dehydration and decomposition characteristics of an undried and a partly dried sample of NiCl₂·xH₂O have been investigated by isothermal and non-isothermal (TG and DTA) methods in static air as well as flowing nitrogen environment. While the isothermal weight loss method fails to distinguish between different steps of reaction, TG curves upto 800°C reveal as many as five steps in static air and four steps in nitrogen atmosphere. However, both methods indicate that NiCl₂ is stable upto 400°C above which dehydrochlorination takes place in presence of water vapour. The intermediate products of dehydration and decomposition at different temperatures have been characterized by chemical analysis, X-ray diffraction, infrared and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. All these methods reveal the presence of water in samples calcined at even 400°–600°C. Thermodynamic functions for different steps of dehydration have been calculated and discussed in the light of the possible structural changes occurring in the partially dehydrated products.The authors wish to express their sincere thanks to Mr. D. N. Dey, Head, Pyrometallurgy Division for his keen interest and constant support during the course of investigation. Thanks are also due to Director, Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar for his kind permission to publish this paper. One of the authors (S. K. M.) is thankful to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi for awarding a Junior Research Fellowship.