Cobalt Kβ/Kα intensity ratios of the calcination products of cobalt carbonate at different temperatures

Abstract

The cobalt Kβ/Kα intensity ratios from the calcination products of CoCO₃ in air at different temperatures were measured, in addition to those of pure CoCO₃, Co₃O₄ and cobalt sponge. At low temperatures there was no transformation to Co₃O₄; at high temperatures the transformation to Co₃O₄ was complete and at some intermediate temperatures there were mixtures. This was confirmed by X-ray diffractograms. A study of the effect of particle size showed that this cannot explain the large variation in the cobalt Kβ/Kα intensity ratios and it is suggested that it could possibly be due to the effect of molecular structure.