Thermal behaviour of gel-grown pure and mixed rare earth tartrates of yttrium and samarium is investigated using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The thermal behaviour suggests that the materials are unstable at lower energies and pass through various stages of decomposition, decomposing to respective rare earth oxides which remain stable on further heating. It is estimated that both pure yttrium and pure samarium tartrate crystals carry eight waters of hydration, while mixed yttrium samarium tartrate crystals carry six waters of hydration. Critical examination of TG and DSC curves shows that the initial decompositions are endothermic and the latter are exothermic. Thermal kinetics of these materials has been worked out using Horowitz-Metzger, Piloyan-Novikova and Coats-Redfern equations. Application of these equations to these materials yields values of activation energy, order of reaction and frequency factor which are in reasonably good agreement.

Experiments on the growth of mixed rare earth (didymium—a combination of La, Nd, Pr and Sm) molybdates in silica gel medium are reported. The optimum conditions conducive for the growth of these crystals are described and discussed. Concentration programming is reported to enhance the size of crystals by two-fold; the maximum size obtained being about 1 mm³. EDAX results suggest the crystals to be heptamolybdates of type R₂Mo₇O₂₄, bearing composition La_1.23Nd_0.43Pr_0.29 Sm_0.05Mo₇O₂₄. The didymium molybdate crystals assume morphologies corresponding to those of spherulites, platelets, cuboids and coalesced crystals. Twinned structure in didymium molybdate crystals are also reported. It is explained that spherulitic morphologies result from aggregates of crystals joining in a spherical envelope. It is suggested that the crystals of didymium molybdates grow by two-dimensional spreading and piling up of layers.