A study of thermal behaviour of intimate mixtures of different molar ratios of potassium chlorate and chromium(III) oxide, and potassium chlorate and nickel(II) chromite(III) was made by employing thermogravimetry, differential thermal analysis, chemical analysis, infrared spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction analysis. Potassium chlorate in presence of Cr(III), starts decomposing around 200°C which is much below the decomposition temperature of pure KClO3. Each mole of Cr(III) takes up 8/3 moles of KClO3 to become oxidized into potassium dichromate. © 1975.