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Thermal characterization and kinetic analysis of nesquehonite, hydromagnesite, and brucite, using TG–DTG and DSC techniques

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Abstract

Nesquehonite, hydromagnesite, and brucite are important precursors for the preparation of high-purity magnesia (MgO) using magnesium resources from salt lake as raw materials. In this paper, TG–DTG and DSC were used to investigate the thermal decomposition behaviors of the three precursors. Decomposition kinetic parameters at each stage were evaluated based on the TG data using the iso-conversional method. Decomposition mechanisms were determined using the master-plots method. The decomposition temperature range, heat absorption, and kinetic parameters of the three phases were then compared. The most probable mechanism of each stage from the perspective of crystal structure was found to be consistent with the calculation results from the master-plots method. Results led to the conclusion that nesquehonite is the most appropriate precursor for the preparation of high-purity MgO. Further studies on precursor selection and calcining condition selection for the preparation of MgO using bischofite will benefit from this research.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Technology R&D Program (No. 2008BAB35B05), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21176142), and Independent Research Programs of Tsinghua University (No. 2011Z08141) and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0308).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, Shanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Hongrui Ren & Jin Chen

  2. Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People’s Republic of China

    Hongrui Ren, Zhen Chen, Yulong Wu, Mingde Yang, Husheng Hu & Ji Liu

  3. Beijing Key Lab of Fine Ceramics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People’s Republic of China

    Yulong Wu

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  1. Hongrui Ren
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Correspondence to Yulong Wu.

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Ren, H., Chen, Z., Wu, Y. et al. Thermal characterization and kinetic analysis of nesquehonite, hydromagnesite, and brucite, using TG–DTG and DSC techniques. J Therm Anal Calorim 115, 1949–1960 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-013-3372-0

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