Effect of glycerol on the thermal decomposition behavior of nickel propionate-based precursor

In this work a detailed analysis of the decomposition behavior of nickel acetylacetonato-propionate with and without additive addition was investigated through thermogravimetry (TG) coupled with differential thermal analyses (DTA) and mass spectrometry (MS), while chemical characterization has been carried out with Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), X-ray diffraction analyses (XRD). Electron Spin Resonance and UV-vis measurements were performed to confirm whether the complexation of the precursor with additive occurs. The glycerol addition has effect on decomposition behavior of the precursor powder by shifting the main decom-position temperature with more than 100 degrees C to lower values. Regarding the intermediate decomposition prod-ucts, they are similar at lower temperatures, while at final decomposition temperatures high exchanges occurs Ni metallic it is fully oxidized in the case of thermal decomposition of the nickel acetylacetonato-propionate pre-cursor, while in the case of the precursor with glycerol addition, metallic nickel is still observed concomitant with NiO phase. The thermal decomposition mechanism of the precursors has been proposed.