Application of Thermal Analytical Methods in the Characterization of Carbonaceous Materials

Thermal analytical methods are applied to a study of the reactivities toward O₂ and CO₂ of three kinds of carbonaceous materials which give different rate expressions with respect to the fractional completion of the reaction. It is demonstrated that a pseudo-third-order reaction can give a bifurcated peak in the DTA curve and, therefore, the notion of the existence of two kinds of carbonaceous materials based on a bifurcated peak, as has often appeared in the literature, should be asserted with caution.