Thermal decomposition of nitrocelluloses derived from wood and cotton: a non-isothermal thermogravimetric analysis

Abstract

The thermal decomposition of nitrocellulose (NC) fibers derived from wood (two samples) and cotton (four samples) was followed using a non-isothermal thermogravimetric (TG) technique. The nitrogen content of the fibers ranged from 12.6 to 13.5%. Activation energies were calculated using various methods of analysis of the TG data including the conventional procedures (i.e., Ozawa's equation, Fatemi et al.'s and Popescu and Segal's methods) and a curve fitting treatment originally proposed by Eisenreich and Pfeil. No variation in activation energies is observed between NC dried fibers and NC films cast from acetone, tetrahydro-furan (THF) and ethyl acetate, whatever the nitrogen content of the sample. However, the catalytic effect of Pb(II) and Cu(II) salicylates on the thermal degradation of NC is demonstrated. Finally, using the TG curves for NC fibers and films, a subtracting procedure is proposed to differentiate the vegetal origin and the nitrogen content of nitrocellulose