High resolution thermogravimetric analysis (HRTG) coupled to a gas evolution mass spectrometer has been used to study the thermal decomposition of zinc-modified hydrotalcites of takovite formulation (Ni x Zn 6-x Al 2 (CO 3 )(OH) 16 .4H 2 O) where x varies from 0 to 6. X-ray diffraction data indicate an increase in the crystallinity and decrease in the interlayer spacing of the materials with increase in the zinc composition. The results of HRTG and mass spectrometry (MS) indicate that water is lost in two major steps at 90-150 and 160-300 °C, with carbon dioxide coming off simultaneously at the second step at 200-300 °C. Further loss of CO 2 was also observed at about 550-560 °C and 735-765 °C due to decomposition of carbonate chemically bound to layer Zn 2+ and Al 3+ cations, respectively. These two steps are attributed to dehydration and dehydroxylation/decarbonation, respectively. The temperature of dehydration was found to increase linearly with increase in the moles of zinc in the takovite formula. In contrast, the temperature of dehydroxylation/decarbonation decreases almost linearly with increase in zinc composition from Ni 5 Zn 1 hydrotalcite. These observations are discussed in terms of the effects of stabilisation of the layer structure, the electronegativity of the layer metals, the charge-to-size ratio of the layer cations and the layer-interlayer hydrogen bonding interactions. Chemical reactions are proposed for the decomposition of the synthesised takovite and zinc-substituted hydrotalcites.