Luminescence studies of decomposition of ceric sulfate

Literature results on the decomposition products of ceric sulfate are inconsistent. A group of researchers claim that ceric sulfate decomposed to ceric oxide without going through a cerous phase at any stage, while the results of the other group show that cerous sulfate is formed as an intermediate phase. Most of these studies used DTA/TGA, XRD and IR techniques. Cerous compounds can also be detected by the characteristic luminescence of Ce(3+). Using such techniques we show that the thermal decomposition of both monoclinic and βCe(SO(4) )(2) · 4H(2) O in air at 500°C leads to the formation of cerous sulphate. Use of various atmospheres (air/N(2) /vacuum) and temperature profiles for the decomposition by the different researchers may be responsible for the discrepancies between literature results.