Kinetic Processing of Thermoanalytical Curves of Cellulose Samples and Finds Assessment of Possible Archaeometric Applications

Thermal oxidative degradation of fresh and aged cellulose samples of wood or paper were studied using thermogravimetry (TG), first-order derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) under a forced air flow up to 800°C. TG and DTG data were processed according to three non isothermal kinetic methods - the Arrhenius differential, Satava's integral and lastly Wyden-Widmann's method - to calculate the activation energy Ea of the oxidative degradation process of the cellulose samples investigated. The trends of the Ea values, measured as a function of sample age (whether natural or artificially induced) were discussed, also taking into account what was reported in literature concerning the degradation process of paper using different instrumental techniques, in order to assess their potential for obtaining archaeometric curves. Although the trend shows an inversion in the direction among non aged cellulose sample and samples artificially aged the results obtained may be deemed encouraging.