Kinetics and mechanism of structural transformations of 2-(5-ethoxycarbonylmethyl-4-oxothiazolidin-2-ylidene)-N-(2-phenylethyl)-ethanamide during heating

Abstract

The kinetics and mechanism of the structural transformation of 2-(5-ethoxycarbonylmethyl-4-oxothiazolidin-2-ylidene)-N-(2-phenylethyl)-ethanamide in non-isothermal conditions were studied by using isoconversion as well as non-isoconversion techniques. It was shown that the crystal, Z-form of compound, was stable in the temperature range from room temperature to melting point, when E-form of compound was formed. This process involves the breaking of crystal structure and the forming of glass material as a new phase, which by cooling forms crystal of the E-form of compound very slowly. The dependences of kinetic parameters on fractional extent conversion were determined indicating a very complex process which involves more than one elementary step, as can be expected for most solid state reactions. The possible mechanism of the process was discussed according to the algorithm concerning the form of these dependences. The evaluation of kinetics parameters and isokinetic relationships were done by combination of model fitting and model-free approach.