Critical Analysis of the Isoconversional Methods for Evaluating the Activation Energy. II. The activation energy obtained from isothermal data corresponding to two successive reactions

An analysis is presented of the consequences of the use of a one term equation containing apparent activation parameters, instead of the true rate equation to describe two successive decomposition reactions undergone by a solid compound. It is demonstrated that the apparent activation energy, obtained by means of isoconversional differential and integral methods, varies with the conversion degree for a relatively narrow temperature range and with temperature at a given value of the conversion degree. The activation energy values obtained with the isoconversional differential method are higher than the corresponding values obtained with the isoconversional integral method. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.