Two steps were observed: the first one, centered around 100 °C, arises from the loss of adsorbed and/or intercalated water. The second step, centered around 500 °C, can be mainly attributed to the decomposition of the organic moieties and to the loss of water arising from the condensation of residual HPO4 groups with the formation of zirconium pyrophosphate. On the basis of these considerations, the following reaction scheme can be considered: