STRUCTURAL AND THERMAL STUDIES OF MAGNESIUM TARTRATE CRYSTALS GROWN BY GEL TECHNIQUE

Material Science,Physics

Tartrate crystals have wide applications. So, their growth procedure and their characteristics are very significant for industrial development. For the applications, the grown crystals have to be characterized and evaluated for their properties and behaviour. Single crystals of magnesium tartrate tetrahydrate were grown by single diffusion silica gel technique at ambient temperature. The obtained crystals were opaque having dimensions of 3 X 2 X 2 mm3. The powder XRD analysis showed these crystals to have orthorhombic crystal system. The lattice parameters are found to be; a = 9.1820 Å, b= 11.2062 Å and c = 7.9529 Å. FTIR spectral analysis confirmed the presence of water of crystallization and various related groups and bonds. The presence of expected elements in crystals was confirmed by carrying out EDAX spectrum analysis. UV-Vis-NIR spectral study reveals these crystals to be transparent and suitable for second harmonic generations. The obtained band gap energy value in the present study is found to be 4.776 eV. The scanned images show these crystals to be grown by layer deposition. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) confirms the presence of water molecules in the lattices and reveals the decomposition behavior of the crystals in the temperature range of 30-800 oC. Experimental data of TGA are used to generate the chemical formula for grown MT crystals. MT crystals are found to possess a chemical formula: MgC4H4O6.4H2O with a molecular weight of 244.403. The thermal stability of the crystals was found to be 39 oC. By using the standard Broido relation, the activation energy and various kinetic parameters such as change in entropy, change in enthalpy and Gibbs free energy for all the crystals were obtained and studied.

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