Thermal degradation kinetics and antimicrobial studies of terpolymer resins

The terpolymer (ASF) was synthesized by condensation of anthranilic acid and salicylic acid with formaldehyde in the presence of glacial acetic acid as a catalyst at 140 ± 2 °C for 6 h with varying proportions of reactants. The terpolymer ASF-I was characterized by elemental analysis, FTIR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectroscopy. The thermal decomposition behavior of ASF-I, II and III terpolymers was studied using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in a static nitrogen atmosphere at a heating rate of 20 °C/min. Freeman–Carroll, Sharp–Wentworth and Phadnis–Deshpande methods were used to calculate the thermal activation energy (Ea) the order of reaction (n), entropy change (ΔS), free energy change (ΔF), apparent entropy (S∗) and frequency factor (Z). Phadnis–Deshpande method was used to propose the thermal degradation model for the decomposition pattern of ASF-I terpolymer resin. The order of the decomposition reaction was found to be 0.901. The thermal activation energy determined with the help of these methods was in good agreement with each other. The ASF-I, II and III resins were tested for their inhibitory action against pathogenic bacteria and fungi. The resins show potent inhibitory action against bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and fungi viz. Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium sp., Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans and Mucor sp