Thermal degradation kinetics study of curcumin with nonlinear methods

•The thermal decomposition kinetics was studied with advanced isoconversional method.•The two decomposition stages of curcumin are all single-step processes.•The mechanisms of the two stages were estimated with two nonlinear methods.•The mechanisms obtained from the two methods are the same. The results of TG/DTG when curcumin was used as the food colouring agent indicated that the processing temperature of the food should not exceed 190°C. The decomposition process of curcumin involved two stages. The results of Eα values, determined by an advanced isoconversional method, showed that the two stages were both single-step processes. The most probable mechanisms of the two stages were estimated by using comparative and nonlinear model-fitting methods. The mechanisms obtained from the two methods are the same, which are the assumed random nucleation and its subsequent growth for stage I and one-dimensional diffusion for stage II, respectively. The values of pre-exponential factor A for both stages were obtained on the basis of Ea and g(α). Besides, some thermodynamic functions (ΔS≠, ΔH≠ and ΔG≠) of the transition state complexes for the two stages were also calculated.