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Kinetics of heterogeneous-induced degradation for artesunate and artemether

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Abstract

This paper presents the results obtained after the investigation of two artemisinin derived sesquiterpenes, namely artesunate and artemether, currently studied for their antitumor properties. The chosen methods of analysis included UATR–FTIR spectroscopy, characterization of the thermal behavior (TG/DTG/HF) in oxidative dynamic atmosphere, and a complete kinetic analysis. The latter was realized using two integral methods (Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa), a differential one (Friedman), and was later completed with the modified NPK method. The study showed that both compounds show similar thermal stability in terms of apparent activation energies and the degradation processes occur in two parallel steps for each compound, this being solely due to chemical transformations.

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Abbreviations

T :

Time

T :

Temperature

Α :

Conversion degree

f(α):

The differential conversion function

R :

The universal gas constant

g(α):

The integral conversion function

β :

The heating rate

k(T):

The temperature dependence function

A :

The pre-exponential factor

E a :

The apparent activation energy given by the Arrhenius equation

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Tirgu Mures, Gh. Marinescu Street 38, 540139, Târgu Mureş, RO, Romania

    Denisa Circioban & Cristina Dehelean

  2. Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Victor Babeş”, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041, Timişoara, RO, Romania

    Ionuţ Ledeţi, Adriana Ledeţi, Carmen Axente & Cristina Dehelean

  3. Research Centre for Thermal Analysis in Environmental Problems, West University of Timisoara, Pestalozzi Street 16, 300115, Timişoara, RO, Romania

    Gabriela Vlase & Titus Vlase

Authors
  1. Denisa Circioban
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  2. Ionuţ Ledeţi
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  3. Gabriela Vlase
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  4. Adriana Ledeţi
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  6. Titus Vlase
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Correspondence to Adriana Ledeţi.

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Circioban, D., Ledeţi, I., Vlase, G. et al. Kinetics of heterogeneous-induced degradation for artesunate and artemether. J Therm Anal Calorim 134, 749–756 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7257-0

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