Six metal chlorides of vanadium, zirconium, niobium, tantalum, gallium, and tellurium (i.e., VCl3, ZrOCl2×8H2O, NbCl5, TaCl5, GaCl3, and TeCl4) were reacted with urea (referred to as U) in aqueous media at ~ 50 oC. The resulting metal-urea complexes were characterized using CHN elemental analyses, infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and thermogravimetry. After the synthesized metal-urea complexes were characterized, their ability to form stable metal oxides was examined. The vanadium(IV) oxide; VO2, zirconium(IV) oxide; ZrO2, niobium(IV) oxide, NbO2, tantalum(IV) oxide; TaO2, gallium(III) oxide; Ga2O3, and tellurium(IV) oxide; TeO2, were generated by the thermal decomposition route of the synthesized metal-urea complexes at low temperature 600 °C in static air atmosphere. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that the oxides contain uniform spherical nanoparticles.

KEY WORDS: Metal chloride, Metal-urea complex, Urea, FTIR, TEM

Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2024, 38(4), 1003-1012.                                                          

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v38i4.15