Study on the thermal decomposition of aluminium chloride hexahydrate

This paper presents a preliminary study on the thermal decomposition process of aluminium chloride hexahydrate (AlCl3·6H2O) crystal with non-isothermal thermal kinetic analysis and static calcination experiments. The ‘kinetic triplets’ including activation energy, pre-exponential factor and mechanism function for the decomposition reaction were determined through thermal analysis from Differential Scanning Calorimetry–Thermos Gravimetric Analysis results. It is found that the average activation energy and pre-exponential factor were 59.668 kJ mol−1 and 6.67 × 105 min−1, respectively, and the most suitable conversion function was . The emission rates of the gaseous products, water (H2O) and hydrogen chloride (HCl), were calculated from the chlorine content evolution obtained from the static calcination tests, respectively. The phase transformation and the change of particle morphology during the decomposition process were also investigated through X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope technologies.