Kinetic analysis for non-isothermal decomposition of un-irradiated and gamma-irradiated anhydrous cadmium nitrate

Abstract

Abstract The thermal decomposition of untreated and γ-irradiated samples of anhydrous cadmium nitrate was performed under non-isothermal conditions at different heating rates (5, 10, 15 and 20 ℃ min –1). The results showed that the decomposition proceeds in one major step with the formation of cadmium oxide as solid residue. The data were analysed by using both isoconversional and non-isoconversional methods. The activation energy was calculated by various model-free isoconversional methods: Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO), Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) and Friedman (FR) methods. Irradiation enhances the decomposition and the effect increases with the irradiation dose. The activation energy decreases on irradiation. The appropriate conversion model for the thermal decomposition process selected by means of the master-plot method agrees with phase boundary reaction with spherical symmetry (R3 mechanism) for both untreated and irradiated salts at all heating rates.