Vaporisation studies over Sn-Te-O system

Tin and tellurium, two of the fission products formed during nuclear fission can form binary intermetallics and ternary oxides depending on the oxygen potential prevailing in the fuel. Hence it is useful to understand the vaporisation behaviour and thermodynamic stabilities of these compounds. In the case of Sn-Te-O ternary system, the only compound known is SnTe₃O₈(s) and this lies on the pseudo binary line of SnO₂-TeO₂. Ashish Jain et al. have carried out the transpiration, e.m.f. and calorimetric studies on this system and reported total pressure and enthalpy of formation of SnTe₃O₈(s) at 298 K. However, no mass spectrometric studies have been reported on this system. Hence, in the present work we have carried out a detailed investigation on this system by using High Temperature Mass Spectrometry also known as Knudsen effusion mass spectrometry (KEMS). In this paper, we report the preliminary results obtained over (SnTe₃O₈(s)+SnO₂(s)) two phase field