Infrared spectroscopic study of cellulose nitrate solutions

Abstract

Earlier infrared spectral studies of cellulose nitrates (CEN) having different degrees of substitution, and of a number of model compounds, in the range of the OH- and CH-valence oscillation frequencies [1], had given some correlations of the absorption bands. The work reported here deals with the infrared spectral study of CEN solutions with different degrees of esterification; this was made to obtain details of the type of intra- and intermolecular reactions, and about their effects on the structural properties of CEN. There are several reports of the study results on CEN solutions by infrared spectroscopy [2–4], such as that on the reaction of CEN with CO(CH 3) 2, (C 2H 5) 2O+ +C 2H 5OH, and with some of the plasticizer types. The authors established that CEN formed intermolecular H-bonds with the examined types of solvent. The spectra of the CEN solutions were also used to determine the number of nitro-ether groups [5, 6]. There are, unfortunately, few studies dealing with spectra of CEN solutions as a means of structural analysis, or of the conformational characteristics, of this important polymer.