Abstract
The non-isothermal decompositions of unirradiated and γ-irradiated (10
2
kGy) gallium acetylacetonate Ga(acac)
3
were carried out in static air. The results showed that the decomposition of Ga(acac)
3
proceeds through multiple decomposition steps in the temperature range 150-310°C to produce Ga
2
O
3
as a final solid residue. Kinetic studies of the non-isothermal data for both unirradiated and γ-irradiated Ga(acac)
3
were performed using both model-fitting and model-free approaches. In a model-fitting approach, the kinetic triplet, i.e. The apparent activation energy E
a
, the pre-exponential factor ln A, and the reaction model f(α), were analyzed and calculated using the methods of Coats and Redfern, and Kennedy and Clark. In the model-free approach, the non-isothermal data for both unirradiated and γ-irradiated samples were analyzed using the Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO), Tang (T), and Vyazovkin (Vyz) isoconversional methods. The results of application of model-free and model-fitting approaches to the non-isothermal data for both unirradiated and γ-irradiated Ga(acac)
3
were compared and evaluated to deduce the most probable kinetic triplet that describes correctly the thermal behaviour of Ga(acac)
3
. No significant changes were observed in the behaviour of unirradiated and γ-irradiated Ga(acac)
3
either as regards their thermal decomposition or the calculated kinetic parameters.