A study of the thermal behavior of the system of zirconium and neodymium dipyvaloylmethanates

TG-DTA method was used to study the thermal behavior of the Zr(thd)(4)/[Nd(thd)(3)](2) system (thd = 2,2,6.6-tetramethylheptane-3,5-dionato) in the condensed phase. Data were obtained on the kinetics of vaporization of individual beta-diketonate precursors and variously prepared mixtures. A mass-spectrometric monitoring of the gas-phase composition was employed to examine the thermal stability of vapors and to study in situ how individual dipyvaloylmethanates Zr(thd)(4) and Nd(thd)(3) and the two-component system Zr(thd)(4)-Nd(thd)(3) are thermally decomposed in a vacuum and in the presence of oxygen. It was found that there is no chemical interaction between the precursors in the whole temperature range under study, but rather pronounced effects of nonadditivity of the thermal parameters are observed for the mixtures examined.