Complementary use of model-free and modelistic methods in the analysis of solid-state kinetics

There are many methods for analyzing solid-state kinetic data. They are generally grouped into two categories, model-fitting and isoconversional (model-free) methods. Historically, model-fitting methods were widely used because of their ability to directly determine the kinetic triplet (i.e., frequency factor [A], activation energy [E-a], and model). However, these methods suffer from several problems among which is their inability to uniquely determine the reaction model. This has led to the decline of these methods in favor of isoconversional methods that evaluate kinetics without modelistic assumptions. This work proposes an approach that combines the power of isoconversional methods with model-fitting methods. It is based on using isoconversional methods instead of traditional statistical fitting methods to select the reaction model. Once a reaction model has been selected, the activation energy and frequency factor can be determined for that model. This approach was investigated for simulated and real experimental data for desolvation reactions of sulfameter solvates.