Cellulose smokeless powder

FiotTBB 45. Marius Marqueyrol, Inspeeteur-G neral des Poudrea, FVanoe. 1919. Author of many researches on aromatic nitro compounds, nitro-cellulose. smokeless powder, stabilisers and stability, chlorate explosives, etc.—published for the most part in the Memorial dee poudtee and in the Bulletin de la eocUU chimique de France ... 

DuPont in the U.S. developed about 1909, a smokeless powder from cotton of relatively low nitrogen that was quite soluble in ether alcohol. A small amount of diphenylamine was used as a stabilizer. After forming the grains and removing the liquid, a coating of graphite was added to make the smokeless powder that was used in the U.S. Other double-base types contain about 25% nitroglycerin. Cotton lint for nitration has been replaced by purified wood cellulose. 

Nature uses cellulose primarily as a structural material to impart strength and rigidity to plants. Leaves, grasses, and cotton, for instance, are primarily cellulose. Cellulose also serves as raw material for the manufacture of cellulose acetate, known commercially as acetate rayon, and cellulose nitrate, known as guncotton. Guncotton is the major ingredient in smokeless powder, the explosive propellant used in artillery shells and in ammunition for firearms. 

Ref J.B. Bernadou, Smokeless Powder, Nitro-ceUulose, a Theory of the Cellulose Molecule , 1 st Edn, J. Wiley Sons, NY (1901)... 

One of the earlier methods was to treat cellulose with sodium hydroxide and carbon disulfide to obtain xanthate esters which could be dispersed in water and cast into sheets or spun into fibers. Subsequent treatment with acid decomposed the xanthates and gave regenerated cellulose, either in fiber or film form. The fibers were called viscose rayon and the films were named cellophane. Cellophane is still used as a wrapping film and some of it is still manufactured by the xanthate process. By treatment with nitric acid, cellulose was converted to a trinitric acid ester, which could be cast into units which were satisfactory for making gun cotton for a smokeless powder for either artillery shells or shotgun ammunition. It was quite insoluble but it could be converted to a jelly-like mass, which could be shaped into a desired form for ammunition use. Under milder conditions, a lower nitrate... 

The most widely used inorganic ester of cellulose is cellulose nitrate (CN), also called nitrocellulose or gun cotton. Celluloid is produced from a mixture of CN and camphor. It was first made in 1833 when cellulose-containing linen, paper, or sawdust was reacted with concentrated nitric acid. It was the first synthetic cellulose product that was recognized. Initially, CN was used as a military explosive and improvements allowed the manufacture of smokeless powder. A representation of CN is given in structure 9.7. 

Other explosives, discovered in the nineteenth century, were nitroglycerine, a liquid that is absorbed in a solid to make dynamite, and nitrocellulose, a solid that produces less smoke (smokeless powder). They are made by heating glycerine and cellulose with nitric acid, a process that adds nitro (-NO2) groups. Another important explosive is trinitrotoluene, made by heating (very carefully) toluene in nitric acid,... 

The late 19th century saw the development of a new family of "smokeless" powders, as modern organic chemistry blossomed and the nitration reaction became commercially feasible. Two "esters" - nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine - became the major components of these new propellants. An ester is a compound formed from the reaction between an acid and an alcohol. Figure 6.1 illustrates the formation of NC and NG from nitric acid and the precursor alcohols cellulose and glycerine. 

Nitrated cellulose, Gun cotton, Cellulosetrinitrate Nitrated cellulose, Gun cotton, Cellulosetrinitrate Nitrated cellulose, Gun cotton, Cellulosetrinitrate Nitrated cellulose, Gun cotton, Cellulosetrinitrate Nitrated cellulose, Gun cotton, Cellulosetrinitrate Smokeless powder... 

Nitrocellulose Nitric acid, Sulfuric acid, Wood cellulose. Sodium bicarbonate Low explosive. Main component in smokeless powders, lED filler... 

Gunpowder Potassium chlorate Nitrated cellulose Gun cotton Cellulose trinitrate Smokeless powder... 

The hot, homogeneous mass is shaped in a hydraulically-operated extrusion press of the type used for smokeless powder (Fig. 121). It is usually cruciform. A guillotine cuts the extruded material to the required length. The outer surfaces of the limbs of the cross are covered by a substance which does not burn readily (e.g. strips of plasticized cellulose acetate or polystyrene 1.5-5 mm thick), and cemented in place, to prevent uneven burning at the surface. 

Duttenhofer s powder was used for a certain time in Germany under the name of RCP (Rottweil Cellulose Pulver). Its greatest disadvantage was the irregularity of the shape of the grains which prevented it from burning as uniformly as the smokeless powder [11] invented by Vieille at about the same time. 

Volney patented in 1874 an expl intended for use in torpedoes contg Mononitronaphthalene 20.8, K nitrate 68.6 and S 10.6%. Another patent (1897) for cannon smokeless powder described the mixing of 86.00 p of dodecanitro-cellulose with 7.82 p of rosaniline or its homologues and 6.18 p of benzene, all dissolved in acetone. According to Ref 3, the production of Nitro-starch started in the USA in about 1888, under the name Volney s Powder ... 

Introduction. Today nitrocellulose is one of most important derivatives of cellulose used in industry and commerce, and a major product of the chemical industry. Its wide and manifold applications are due mainly to its extraordinary physical properties. Thus a protective coating of nitrocellulose varnish, a nitrocellulose film or a tube of smokeless powder — all are characterized by relatively high elasticity and mechanical strength. These properties are a direct consequence of the microstructure of cellulose, which is composed of highly oriented long-chain molecules of polysaccharide. Not only nitrocellulose, but also other derivatives of cellulose, such as other esters and ethers, demonstrate similar characteristics. 

Esters and ethers of cellulose, and especially nitrocellulose, are most widely used in the form of a colloidal solution. This technique is applied in the manufacture of smokeless powder, nitrocellulose varnishes, film and celluloid. 

Bleaching. Crude wood cellulose is bleached by means of calcium or sodium hypochlorite in large tanks, bleachers , equipped with stirrers. Bleaching cellulose is of great importance for nitrocellulose manufacture, particularly in the case of nitrocellulose intended for the production of smokeless powder. It is essential that the powder should be pale in colour, as a change in the colour of the powder often indicates decomposition. Similarly, cellulose destined for manufacturing collodion cotton, for varnishes, celluloid and film, should be carefully stripped of colour so that the final products are colourless. 

E. Weintraub, ZAngChem 12, 445(1899)(NC of 13.8-13.9% N prepd by nitration of cellulose with HNOs P20g) 3)G.W.MacDonald, "Historical Papers on Modern Explosives , Whittaker Co, London(1912) 4)Marshall 1 (197), 135-93 2(1917), 208,552 636 5)J.B. Bernadou, "Smokeless Powder, Nitrocellulose and Theory of the Cellulose Molecule , Wiley,... 

Cellulose occurs everywhere in the vegetable kingdom it is wood fiber and cell wall, the structural material of all plants. Cotton fiber is practically pure cellulose, but cellulose of equal purity, satisfactory in all respects for the manufacture of explosives and smokeless powder, may be produced from wood. Cellulose and starch both yield glucose on hydrolysis, and the molecules of both these substances are made up of anhydroglucose units linked together. 

Figure 65. Fred Olsen. Has done important work on cellulose and has made many improvements in detonating explosives, high explosives, and smokeless powder in particular, has invented processes for the quick stabilization of nitrocellulose and for the production of ball-grain powder. Chief of Chemical Research, Aetna Explosives Company, 1917-1919 Chemical Adviser, Picatinny Arsenal, 1919-1928 Technical Director, Western Cartridge Company, 1929—.

Single-base nitrocellulose powder is the oldest of all types of NC powders and is often referred to as smokeless powder. It is prepared by reacting cellulose with nitric acid. 

See Cellulose Nitrate, Smokeless Powder, Dodekanitro-cellulose, Hexanitrocellulose. Trinitrocellulose. 

Bemadou s Smokeless Powder, Nitro-cellulose, and the Theory of the Cellulose... 

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