Chemiluminescence from paper I.: Kinetic analysis of thermal oxidation of cellulose

Kinetic analysis of chemiluminescence intensity-time and chemiluminescence intensity-temperature runs for oxidation of cellulose at elevated temperatures is presented showing a good coincidence of the first-order rate constants from non-isothermal chemiluminescence experiments with those obtained from polymerisation degree determinations and from the literature. Rate constants from isothermal runs are lower than those from non-isothermal runs, however, when repeating non-isothermal runs several times in so-called temperature cycling experiments, the non-isothermal rate constants approach isothermal ones. A method enabling the differentiation of faster and slower processes in oxidation of cellulose based on non-isothermal chemiluminescence runs is demonstrated. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.