Abstract: The thermal stability of hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin was examined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Byeither the Kissinger’s equation or Ozawa’s equation, the activation energy of thermal degradation of hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrinwas found to be 168.1 kJ/mol and 169.3 kJ/mol respectively. The results were in good agreement. The preexponential factor (A) was4.546×1019 according to method of Ozawa. The enthalpy change was 173.77kJ/mol and entropy change 0.2853kJ/mol•K.

Key words: differential scanning calorimetry(DSC), hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin, thermal stability, activation energy