Ge-In-Se system, similar to many other chalcogenide glasses, has attracted
much attention due to its interesting physical properties and applications.
This article reports thermal analysis and estimation of activation energies
of the glass transition and amorphous-crystallization transformation of
Ge13In8Se79 chalcogenide glass. The kinetic parameters were investigated
under a non-isothermal condition at different heating rates (7–40 K/min)
using differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) technique. The amorphous
nature of the samples was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and
scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The activation energy was calculated
from DSC data using five isoconversional methods: Kissinger–Akahira–
Sunose (KAS), Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO), Tang, Starink, and Vyazovkin. The
results confirm that the activation energy of crystallization varies and
depends on the degree of crystallization as well as temperature. It was
also observed that the transformation from amorphous to the crystalline
structure is complex involving different mechanisms of nucleation,
diffusion, and growth.