TG-DTG technique and Harcourt-Esson integrated equation were used to study the dehydration process of zinc phosphate tetrahydrate α-Zn3（PO4）2·4H2O nanoparticle and its thermal decomposition kinetics. The results show that there are three stages of dehydration between 300 and 800 K during the thermal decomposition of α-Zn3（PO4）2·4H2O nanoparticle. The first stage is controlled by chemical reaction with an activation energy of 69.48 kJ·mol^-1 and a pre-exponential factor of 1.77×10^6 s^-1. The second is controlled by nucleation and growth with an activation energy of 78.74 kJ·mol^-1 and a pre-exponential factor of 5.86×10^9 s^-1. The third is controlled by nucleation and growth with an activation energy of 141.5 kJ·mol^-1 and a pre-exponential factor of 1.01×10^12 s^-1. The kinetic compensative effects not only exist in Arrhenius equation but also in Harcourt-Esson equation. Activation energy E is dependent on both the decomposition fraction α and temperature T.
Ammonium magnesium phosphate monohydrate NH4MgPO4·H2O was prepared via solid state reaction at room temperature and characterized by XRD, FT-IR and SEM. Thermochemical study was performed by an isoperibol solution calorimeter, non-isothermal measurement was used in a multivariate non-linear regression analysis to determine the kinetic reaction parameters. The results show that the molar enthalpy of reaction above is （28.795 ± 0.182） kJ/mol （298.15 K）, and the standard molar enthalpy of formation of the title complex is （-2185.43 ± 13.80） kJ/mol （298.15 K）. Kinetics analysis shows that the second decomposition of NH4MgPO4·H2O acts as a double-step reaction： an nth-order reaction （Fn） with n=4.28, E1=147.35 kJ/mol, A1=3.63×10^13 s^-1 is followed by a second-order reaction （F2） with E2=212.71 kJ/mol, A2= 1.82 × 10^18 s^-1.
