Abstract
Traditional stabilizers for nitrocellulose-based (NC-based) propellants are known to have carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxicity to reproduction potentials. Therefore, the replacement of these stabilizers in the propellants formulations is necessary, but with no losses regarding stabilization efficiency and shelf life of propellant. In this context, NC-based propellants were prepared using the natural substances curcumin and guaiacol as stabilizers. The chemical stability of the samples evaluated by a heat-flux microcalorimeter (HFC) suggests that the new propellants are more stable than the traditional ones. Also, a complementary in silico analysis was performed on toxicity prediction software (LAZAR, Toxtree, VEGA and TEST) based on the similarity with substances contained in their databases. The results concluded that curcumin stabilizer presents no toxicity, while guaiacol can have carcinogenic and mutagenic potential.
Highlights
Nitrocellulose-based (NC-based) propellants become unstable during aging and need stabilizers in order to prevent their autocatalytic degradation process, increasing their shelf life
The performances of the green stabilizers were superior than the traditional ones, suggesting that there are no losses regarding stabilization efficiency – at least by using heat-flux microcalorimeter (HFC) test
According to the method reported by Bohn (2009), the maximum heat flow peaks and the total areas below the heating isotherm were lower than the reference sample, suggesting that they may be more stable over time than usual stabilizers
Summary
Nitrocellulose-based (NC-based) propellants become unstable during aging and need stabilizers in order to prevent their autocatalytic degradation process, increasing their shelf life Traditional stabilizers such as diphenylamine (DPA) and ethylcentralite (EC) are very effective on this task, but are known to generate molecules containing the group N–N=O (N-nitrous) which is potentially carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic to reproduction (CMR) (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry 2017). Green stabilizers, such as curcumin and guaiacol, are proposed as substances that may replace the usual stabilizers without the formation of any long-term detectable number of CMR-derived products (Dobson et al 2016).
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