KINETICS IN SOLIDS

The kinetics of solid state reactions generally cannot be assumed to follow simple rate laws that are applicable to gas-phase reactions. Nevertheless, a widely practiced method for extracting Arrhenius parameters from thermal analysis experiments involves force fitting of experimental data to simple reaction-order kinetic models. This method can produce significant errors in predicted rates outside the experimental range of temperatures, and it is of limited utility for drawing mechanistic conclusions about reactions. In this review, we discuss how an alternative “model-free” approach to kinetic analysis, which is based on the isoconversional method, can overcome some of these limitations.