Mechanism of the formation of micropores in the thermal decomposition of goethite to hematite.

The mechanisms of the formation of micropores in the thermal decomposition of goethite to hematite have been studied through the measurements of X-ray diffraction, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller adsorption and scanning electronic microscopy, as well as the estimation of crystal cell parameters in this work. The results have shown that the thermal decomposition led to the crystal cells of goethite to be contracted along the [010] and [001] directions and to be elongated along the [100] direction, forming nano-scale and rod-like hematite. It was the contractions along the two directions that led to the formation of the micropores in the hematite particles. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]