The dehydration process of the compounds RE(C7H7SO3)(3).xH(2)O (where x=2 for RE=La-Ho, Tm, Yb and Y; x=7 and 6 for RE=Er and Lu, respectively) has been investigated by thermogravimetry/derivative thermogravimetry (TG/DTG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. The TG/DTG curves show that the dehydration process does not depend on the atmosphere used. For the compounds of La-Gd, dehydration occurs in a single step while for the compounds of heavier lanthanoid (Dy-Lu) and yttrium it occurs in two stages. The total dehydration DeltaH for each compound was determined by DSC and the values vary between 67 and 381 kJ mol(-1) along the series. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.