Cellulose materials, nitration

In a typical process 12001b (545 kg) of the mixed acids are run into the reaction vessel and 301b (13.5 kg) of the dried cotton linters are added. The mixture is agitated by a pair of contra-rotating stirrers and nitration is allowed to proceed at about 35-40°C for 20 minutes. It is interesting to note that the cellulosic material retains its fibrous form throughout the nitration process. 

Nitromatweed (Matweed Nitrate, Nitrosparte in Fr). Prepd by nitration of dried matweed with mixed nitric-sulfuric acids in a manner similar to the prepn of NC. Trench, Faure and MacKie (Ref 2), in 1876, patented expls containing as a base nitrosparte (or other nitrated cellulosic material such as cotton, hay, agave, hemp, flax, straw, aloe, yucca, etc) together with resin, ozokerite, collodion, glycerin, charcoal and soot. Hengst (Ref 3), in 1898, patented a smokeless powd containing nitrosparte prepd by nitration of fibers covering the coconut shell Refs 1) Merriam Webster s Diet, 2nd Ed (1963), ... 

Nordenfelt and Meurling Powder. A propint, patented in Engl in 1884, prepd as follows Cotton or other cellulosic material, was transformed into a material resembling hydrocellulose thru treatment with hydrochloric acid. It was then dried, pulverized, and mixed with S disd in carbon disulfide. After evapn of the CS2, the material was treated with a coned soln of K nitrate, granulated and dried Ref Daniel (1902), 583... 

Wooden staging, which had become impregnated over a number of years with sodium nitrite, became accidentally ignited and burned as fiercely as if impregnated with potassium chlorate. Although the effect of impregnating cellulosic material with sodium nitrate is well known, that due to sodium nitrite was unexpected. 

Fibrous organic material (jute storage bags) is oxidised in contact with sodium nitrate above 160°C and will ignite below 220°C [1]. Wood and similar cellulosic materials are rendered highly combustible by nitrate impregnation [2],... 

Note If the distn does not go to carbonization the residue is a cellulose and there is no reason why it. cannot be nitrated to produce NC. If the residue is carbonized, the resulting product should be suitable as an ingredient of expls in lieu of charcoal. This, of course, concerns only the countries with large production and romsumption of olives and short supply of cellulosic materials (like Spain or Italy)... 

Nitrocellulose with a decreased molecular weight may be obtained as the result of depolymerization (degradation) of the cellulose before nitration, e.g. by keeping it at a temperature of 150-170°C or by treating it with acids. The resultant hydrocellulose, which usually possesses a lower molecular weight than cellulose, is then subjected to nitration to produce a more soluble substance as compared with the nitration product of a non-depolymerized raw material. 

Then 17 kg of cellulosic material are loaded into the nitrator, with the stirrers... 

A continuous vapor-phase nitration of cellulosic material in the form of a sheet was developed in the USA by the Brown Paper Co, Berlin, New Hampshire. No description of this method is available Refs l)J.Downie, BritP 1813 (1864) A-Nobel,... 

An ESCA Investigation Of The Surface Chemistry Of The Nitration And Denitration Of Cellulose Materials... 

It is clear therefore that ESCA provides a new dimension to this complex problem of the nitration-denitration of cellulose materials and the work described here provides a strong basis for the study of the even more complex systems represented by double and triple based propellant formulations. 

By careful nitration of cellulosic materials with nitric acid in the presence of phosphoric acid and phosphoric anhydride, a minimum of degradation occurs. " According to Schieber, the resulting cellulose nitrate may be separated by stepwise dispersion with successively richer solvent mixtures into a series of fractions of var3dng chain lengths. 

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