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Effect of plasticizer dibutyl phthalate on the thermal decomposition of nitrocellulose

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Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the effects of plasticizer dibutyl phthalate (DBP) on the thermal decomposition of nitrocellulose (NC) by using a series of analytical apparatuses. In the present study, the detailed structures of pure NC (NC-P) and NC with DBP (NC-D) were revealed by scanning electron microscope. It was found that the fibers in NC-D are more closely aligned than those in NC-P, which makes the thermal behaviors of NC-D different from NC-P. The thermal stability of both NC-P and NC-D was examined by means of simultaneous TG-DSC apparatus (STA). Three different kinetic methods (Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose method, Ozawa–Flynn–Wall method, and Friedman method) were applied for determining the activation energy E of these two NC samples. Moreover, the experimental data were compared with sigmoidal models and pre-exponential factor was calculated by compensation effect. Besides, in situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and a TGA instrument coupled with Frontier FTIR spectrometer were employed to investigate the characteristic functional groups of decomposition residues and gaseous products at different temperatures, respectively. The results show that NC-P and NC-D have similar decomposition products and decomposition mechanisms.

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Abbreviations

A :

Pre-exponential factor

c :

A parameter of random scission kinetic functions

a − b :

Compensation effect parameters

E :

Activation energy (kJ mol−1)

f(α):

The dependence of the reaction rate on the extent of conversion

g(α):

The integral form of the reaction model

k(T):

The dependence of the reaction rate on temperature

m :

A parameter of random scission kinetic functions

m t :

Real-time sample mass in TG (mg)

m f :

Mass after the reaction in TG (mg)

m i :

Initial sample mass in TG (mg)

n :

A constant in describing reaction model

p(x):

Temperature integral

R :

One part of nitrocellulose, i.e., [C6H7O2(OH)3–x(ONO2)x–1]n

R 0 :

Gas constant (J mol−1 K−1)

R 2 :

Pearson’s correlation coefficient

t :

Time

T :

Temperature (°C)

T α :

Temperature at an fixed α

T on :

Onset decomposition temperature

T max :

Maximum decomposition temperature

V :

Stretching

W :

Normalized mass

α :

Extent of conversion

β :

Heating rate

τ :

Deformation

ω :

Wag

i:

Different heating rates

max:

Maximum

n:

Degree of polymerization

on:

Onset

s:

Symmetric

as:

Antisymmetric

x:

The number of –ONO2

0.5:

α = 0.5

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51376172) and the Grant from the Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (contract Grant Number CityU 11301015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Ruichao Wei, Shenshi Huang, Zhi Wang, Tiannian Zhou, Junjiang He & Jian Wang

  2. Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 999077, People’s Republic of China

    Ruichao Wei, Shenshi Huang, Junjiang He & Richard Yuen

  3. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Chengming Wang

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  1. Ruichao Wei
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Correspondence to Jian Wang.

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Wei, R., Huang, S., Wang, Z. et al. Effect of plasticizer dibutyl phthalate on the thermal decomposition of nitrocellulose. J Therm Anal Calorim 134, 953–969 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7521-3

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