Synthesis, Characterization, and Thermal Kinetics of Mixed Gadolinium: Calcium Heptamolybdate System

Synthesis of mixed gadolinium calcium heptamolybdate (GdCaHM) system in silica gel medium using single gel single tube technique has been successfully achieved. The grown crystal exhibits various morphologies, which includes spherulites, multifaceted, and square platelets. The nature of the grown material was established by X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) study signifies the presence of heptamolybdate (Mo(7)O(24)) and water symmetry structure, whereas energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) establishes the stoichiometric of the grown crystal as GdCaMo(7)O(24)·8H(2)O. The thermal behaviour was studied using the thermoanalytical techniques, which include thermogravimetry (TG), differential thermal analysis (DTA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Results obtained on the application of TG based models, namely, Horowitz-Metzger, Coats-Redfern, and Piloyan-Novikova, suggest the contracting cylindrical model as the relevant model for the thermal decomposition of the material. The kinetic parameters, namely, the order of reaction (n), activation energy (E (a)), frequency factor (Z), and entropy (ΔS∗), were also calculated using these three models.