MECHANISM OF THERMAL-DECOMPOSITION OF HYDRATED COPPER NITRATE IN VACUO

The general scheme of three-stage thermal decomposition of Cu(NO3)(2) . 3H(2)O to CuO has been refined based on evolved-gas-analysis data wi th a quadrupole mass analyzer (Jackson et al., Spectrochim. Acta Part B, 50 (1995) 1423). Quantitative evaluation of the composition of the gaseous products shows that the first stage involves primarily deaquat ion, and the second stage, primarily denitration of the original hydra ted nitrate. The basic nitrate formed in the second stage most probabl y has the formula Cu(NO3)(2) . 3Cu(OH)(2). It has been established tha t the molecular oxygen observed in the third stage of decomposition is produced by catalytic decomposition of NO2 on the surface of CuO. The presence of Cu-containing ions in all stages of the process is consis tent with the gasification mechanism of thermal decomposition.