Experimental Investigation of Effective Parameters in Thermal Decomposition of Thorium Oxalate

In this study, the thermal decomposition of thorium oxalate dihydrate (Th(C2O4)2. 2H2O) was investigated by using design of experiment- technique. The thermal decomposition experiments were carried out in a two- temperature procedure and the influence of the decomposition temperature of the second step, as well as, durations of both steps on the crystallinity, size, size distribution, morphology and specific surface area of the produced thorium oxide were investigated. For this purpose the experiments were designed by using Taguchi method. The results showed that the optimum decomposition temperature and duration of the first and second heating stages were 400 °C for 4 hours and 750 °C for 4 hours, respectively. The powder characterization showed that the cubic thorium oxideparticles synthesized in the optimal conditions had uniform size distribution with an approximate size of 350 nanometers. Moreover, the crystallinity of ThO2 phase and specific surface area of these particles were 95% and 35.23(m2 g-1), respectively.