ON THE ACCURACY AND PRECISION OF ESTIMATION OF THE ACTIVATION-ENERGY OF NON-ISOTHERMAL DECOMPOSITION OF A SOLID

The agreement between the estimates and an independently calculated value of the activation energy, and the least squares criterion, have been used as alternative criteria for discriminating between rivalling kinetic models of the non-isothermal decomposition of a solid. It is shown that the two criteria are in good agreement when the data embrace a wide range of thermal curves with different heating rates. The conditions are discussed for determination of the most accurate and precise estimates of the activation energy and the other model parameters by the non-linear estimation approach. The discussion is supported by calculations performed on experimental results of dehydration of CaC2O4·H2O and Ba(IO3)2·H2O. © 1979 Wiley Heyden Ltd., Chichester and Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest.