Method for Determining the Activation Energy Distribution Function of Complex Reactions by Sieving and Thermogravimetric Measurements

A method for studying the kinetics of thermal degradation of complex compounds is suggested. Although the method is applicable to any matrix whose grain size can be measured, herein we focus our investigation on thermogravimetric analysis, under a nitrogen atmosphere, of ground soft wheat and ground maize. The thermogravimetric curves reveal that there are two well-distinct jumps of mass loss. They correspond to volatilization, which is in the temperature range 298-433 K, and decomposition regions go from 450 to 1073 K. Thermal degradation is schematized as a reaction in the solid state whose kinetics is analyzed separately in each of the two regions. By means of a sieving analysis different size fractions of the material are separated and studied. A quasi-Newton fitting algorithm is used to obtain the grain size distribution as best fit to experimental data. The individual fractions are thermogravimetrically analyzed for deriving the functional relationship between activation energy of the degradation reactions and the particle size. Such functional relationship turns out to be crucial to evaluate the moments of the activation energy distribution, which is unknown in terms of the distribution calculated by sieve analysis. From the knowledge of moments one can reconstruct the reaction conversion. The method is applied first to the volatilization region, then to the decomposition region. The comparison with the experimental data reveals that the method reproduces the experimental conversion with an accuracy of 5-10% in the volatilization region and of 3-5% in the decomposition region.