The mechanism of thermal decomposition of ionic oxalates

A mechanism for the thermal decomposition of ionic oxalates has been proposed on the basis of three quantitative relationships linking the quantitiesr _c/r _i (the ratio of the Pauling covalent radius and the cation radius of the metal atom in hexacoordination) andΣI _i (the sum of the ionization potentials of the metal atom in kJ mol^?1) with the onset oxalate decomposition temperature (T _d) (Eq. 1) the average C-C bond distance (¯d) (Eq. 2), and the activation energy of oxalate decomposition (E _a) (Eq. 3): (1) $$T_d = 516 - 1.4006\frac{{r_c }}{{r_i }}(\sum I_i )^{\frac{1}{2}}$$ (2) $$\bar d = 1.527 + 5.553 \times 10^{ - 6} \left( {122 - \frac{{r_c }}{{r_i }}(\sum I_i )^{\frac{1}{2}} } \right)^2$$ (3) $$E_a = 127 + 1.4853 \times 10^{ - 6} \left( {\left( {\frac{{r_c }}{{r_i }}} \right)^2 \sum I_i - 9800} \right)^2$$ On the basis of these results it is proposed that the thermal decomposition of ionic oxalates follows a mechanism in which the C-O bond ruptures first. From Eq. 3 it is further proposed that strong mutual electronic interactions between the oxalate and the cations restrict the essential electronic reorganization leading to the products, thereby increasingE _a.