The ‘Temperature Integral’ — Its use and abuse

This paper first reviews the history of the temperature dependence of reaction rate in reaction kinetics. The various equations which are in use today for expressing this dependence were delineated by van't Hoff almost one hundred years ago. Since an exponential form best describes this dependence for most thermal analysis reactions and, due to the fact that the simple Arrhenius equation (with a temperature-independent preexponential factor) has traditionally been used for this purpose, the mathematically intractable temperature integral often has become a necessary evil in the analysis of thermal analysis kinetics. Methods which avoid the temperature integral in kinetics analysis are discussed. The merits of various evaluations and approximations for the temperature integral are described and assessed in this paper.