ICTAC Kinetics Committee recommendations for analysis of thermal decomposition kinetics

• Recommendations are collected for the kinetic analysis of thermal decompositions • Basic kinetic procedures are introduced briefly. • Individual thermal decomposition features for different types of materials are discussed separately. • Appropriate kinetic approaches are described for each specific process. • Necessity of the evaluation of the kinetic results is emphasized. In this review article, the Kinetics Committee of the International Confederation for Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (ICTAC) delivers a collection of recommendations for the kinetic analysis of thermal decomposition processes. These recommendations specifically focus on the thermal decomposition processes in inorganic, organic, and polymeric materials, as well as biomass and solid fuels. A general introduction to the kinetic analysis of thermal decompositions studied by thermal analysis techniques is followed by individual sections that discuss thermal decomposition of specific classes of materials and respective kinetic approaches. In each section, various kinetic analysis procedures are introduced with regard to specific features of the reactions and explained progressively from simple to complex reactions with examples of practical kinetic analysis. These recommendations are expected to provide a guidance for performing reliable and meaningful kinetic analysis in terms of practical usefulness and physico-chemical significance of the results.