INTERPRETATION OF ACTIVATION-ENERGIES CALCULATED FROM NONISOTHERMAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF AMORPHOUS METALS

Non-isothermal differential scanning calorimetry is often used to dete rmine the activation energy of transformations in amorphous metals by the way in which the transformation peaks shift with changes in heatin g rate. The two relationships used for this purpose were developed by Kissinger and Ozawa. There have been attempts to compare the activatio n energies obtained from each of these methods and thereby to infer th e order of the underlying kinetic process. In fact, the differences fo und between the activation energies arise from different approximation s used in developing the two relationships. When a correction is appli ed, both techniques give identical activation energies for the transfo rmation and yield no information about the reaction order nor even abo ut the type of kinetics involved.