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Physicochemical properties of microcrystalline nitrocellulose from Alfa grass fibres and its thermal stability

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Abstract

The conventional cellulose nitrate (NC), used in many applications such as coating agent, main charge of propellant, museum artefacts, biofilter material, solid-phase immobilization supports for proteins, was mainly prepared from wood or cotton. The conventional NC presents many drawbacks such as low density, high friability and low combustion temperature. One approach to improve these shortcomings is the modification of the structure of the NC precursor (cellulose). In this work, microcrystalline cellulose nitrate was successfully produced from an inexpensive and easily renewable source which is Alfa grass. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicates some modifications in the peak positions and intensities, suggesting that a significant difference between conventional and microcrystalline cellulose nitrate samples exists. According to X-ray diffraction results, microcrystalline cellulose nitrate samples were more crystalline than the conventional cellulose nitrate samples, where the increase of the crystallinity is 22 %. The morphology was investigated using scanning electron microscopy, showing a compact structure and a rough surface. In comparison with the commercial nitrocellulose material, the microcrystalline cellulose nitrate particles have good thermal stability, low viscosity, high nitrogen content and important quantity of gas released. Besides on these results, Alfa microcrystalline cellulose nitrate showed tremendous potential use as a propellant and gas generator component or other high value-added applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UER Chimie Appliquée, Ecole Militaire Polytechnique, P.O. Box 17, 16111, Bordj El-Bahri, Algiers, Algeria

    Djalal Trache, Kamel Khimeche, Abderrahmane Mezroua & Mokhtar Benziane

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  1. Djalal Trache
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  2. Kamel Khimeche
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  3. Abderrahmane Mezroua
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  4. Mokhtar Benziane
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Correspondence to Djalal Trache.

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Trache, D., Khimeche, K., Mezroua, A. et al. Physicochemical properties of microcrystalline nitrocellulose from Alfa grass fibres and its thermal stability. J Therm Anal Calorim 124, 1485–1496 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-016-5293-1

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