Impact of gamma and electron-beam irradiations on the thermal dehydration process of europium acetate hydrate

Abstract The main goal of this work is to study the effect of irradiation on the thermal behavior of europium acetate hydrate. Exposure to gamma and electron beam irradiation significantly altered the kinetic triplets ( E a , ln A , f ( α )) and thermodynamic parameters. Integral and differential linear isoconversional methods were applied to determine activation energy, E a , and pre-exponential component, A , of the dehydration process. The Vyazovkin non-linear isoconversional method was used in parallel to the linear method for comparison. In the gamma and electron-beam-irradiated material, the dehydration proceeded by one thermal step. A synergistic combination of both nucleation sites and electron beam enhances the dehydration process, as indicated by a decrease in the values of E a by increasing the degree of conversion, which results in a lower value of E a (113.681 kJ/mol) compared to gamma-irradiated material, which shows retardation of the decomposition and rising value of E a (120.601 kJ/mol) of the dehydration. The Ozawa’s generalized time and Málek equations were employed to determine the mechanism models ( R 2 ) and ( F 1 ) for gamma and electron-beam-irradiated materials, respectively. The kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were compared with those for un-irradiated material.