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Phase transitions and mechanical properties of nitrocellulose plasticized by glycidyl azide polymer and nitroglycerine
Author(s) -
Comtois Etienne,
Favis Basil D.,
Dubois Charles
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.25473
Subject(s) - plasticizer , materials science , polymer , ultimate tensile strength , scanning electron microscope , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , polymer chemistry , composite material , chemical engineering , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , organic chemistry , engineering
Films of nitrocellulose (NC), glycidyl azide polymer (GAP), and nitroglycerine (NG) have been evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and tensile testing. The SEM micrographs demonstrate that, even at low GAP concentration, a portion of GAP will coalesce into spherical domains due to a saturation effect. This is related to the inability of higher molecular weight GAP to effectively situate itself between NC polymer chains. The addition of a small fraction of lower molecular weight NG completely changes this behavior. DMA confirms that two transitions are present and can be attributed to a plasticizer rich phase (β), a polymer rich phase (α) and that NC plasticized with GAP is in accordance with the Gordon‐Taylor equation. Tensile results show that the addition of a small fraction of NG to a NC/GAP based‐formulation increases elongation at break to values similar to that of the NC/NG base formulation. The combination of these two plasticizers, GAP and NG, allows for the plasticization of NC at significantly lower environmental and human toxicity levels.