Preparation of basic magnesium carbonate and its thermal decomposition kinetics in air

The thermal decomposition process of basic magnesium carbonate was investigated. Firstly, Basic magnesium carbonate was prepared from magnesite, and the characteristics of the product were detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Subsequently, the thermal decomposition process of basic magnesium carbonate in air was studied by thermogravimetry-differential thermogravimetry (TG-DTG). The results of XRD confirm that the chemical composition of basic magnesium carbonate is 4MgCO3·Mg(OH)2·4H2O. And the SEM images show that the sample is in sheet structure, with a diameter of 0.1-1 μm. The TG-DTG results demonstrate that there are two steps in the thermal decomposition process of basic magnesium carbonate. The apparent activation energies (E) were calculated by Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method. It is obtained from Coats-Redfern’s equation and Malek method that the mechanism functions of the two decomposition stages are D3 and A1.5, respectively. And then, the kinetic equations of the two steps were deduced as well.