Starch nitration

Salpeter-schwefels ure, /. nitrosulfuric acid (a mixture) nitrosylsulfuric acid, -siederei, /. saltpeter works, -stkrkemehl, n. nitrated starch, -stoff, m. nitrogen, -strauch, m. niter bush Nitraria). -ung,/. nitrification, -verbindung, /. nitrate. -waC4)ge, /. nitrometer. 

X-ray diffraction studies by Kolaczkowska Urbahski (Ref 13) suggest that during nitration starch passes thru a hydrolysis stage according to ... 

Braconnot, who first nitrated cellulose, was also the first to nitrate starch, in 1833 (Ref 1). 

Pyroxalam. The name given by Uchatius in the 1830 s to a white powder obtained by nitrating starch with a mixt of nitric and sulfuric acids, and which contained about 11.1% N. It was Nitrostarch (see in this Vol) with the formula C2 4H320l2(0N02)8, and closely resembled a product previously prepd (1832) by Braconnot by treating starch with neat coned nitric acid Ref Daniel (1902), 459, under Nitramidon... 

At the same time as nitroglycerine was being prepared, the nitration of cellulose to produce nitrocellulose (also known as guncotton) was also being undertaken by different workers, notably Schonbein at Basel and Bottger at Frankfurt-am-Main during 1845-47. Earlier in 1833, Braconnot had nitrated starch, and in 1838, Pelouze, continuing the experiments of Braconnot, also nitrated paper, cotton and various other materials but did not realize that he had prepared nitrocellulose. With the announcement by Schonbein in 1846, and in the same year by... 

Azote Powder Company of Indianapolis, Ind patented in 1898 a method of nitrating starch (previously dried at 100-140° and then cooled) using 1 liter of mixed nitricsulfuric acid (1 2) per 200 g of starch. Nitration was done in a hermetically closed vessel at a temp below 4°... 

Pelouze [2] continued the investigations of Braconnot by subjecting paper or cotton to the action of nitric acid. The difference was that in his experiments the nitrated material was not dissolved in nitric add, but the product was similar. In later papers it was described under the name of pyroxylin. Extending his earlier researches, Pelouze [3] later established that pyroxylin was a substance differing in prindple from the product obtained by nitrating starch. 

The same observations apply to the graph of nitrating starch discussed in one of the following chapters, with the exception that the solubility of nitrostarch in nitrating mixtures is, however, a major factor. Thus mixed acids of poor sulphuric acid percentage dissolve nitrostarch, and esterification in such homogeneous systems proceeds more readily. 

To nitrate starch, Hugh treated it with an anhydrous mixture of nitric acid, sulphuric acid and oleum to obtain a product that very probably contained 13.3-13.5% N. Hugh s plant was destroyed as the result of an explosion, and the manufacture and application of Hugh s powder was abandoned. Further development of nitrostarch was then taken up by du Pont [25]. In 1905 this company introduced a low-freezing explosive Nyalite . A similar low-freezing explosive material Arctic , introduced by the same firm in 1907, was manufactured for the next decade. Both contained nitrostarch. 

It has been demonstrated (T. Urbanski and Janiszewski [47]) that it is possible to nitrate starch by means of nitric anhydride vapour in a stream of air or with... 

Bomlit. A Ger blasting expl manufd after WWI by Wolff Co at Walsrode. It contained K perchlorate, AN, TNT and guncotton. Other ingredients, such as K Na nitrates, starch, vaselin, naphthalene... 

Rosslyn Powders. Several smokeless powders patented in Engl in 1894-1895. One was prepd by treating nitrated tissue paper with K or Ba nitrate, starch and vaseline, previously dissolved in some volatile material such as benz. The resulting sheet was cut into strips of desired size and dried... 

Warm the main bulk of the sample on a water-bath, note any odour, and test the sample with appropriate test papers (pH, lead acetate, silver nitrate, starch). Apply the Reinsch Test for metals (p. 57). 

Amylose and its nitrated starch products were also studied by Pringsheim et al(Ref... 

Nitrated starch is used in the United States as an ingredient of... 

The inferred ratio of acid to starch seems to have been too low to produce appreciably more than about 7 % of nitrogen, although Pelouze, by using a large excess of nitric acid, made flammable products, some of which he detonated. He also found that nitrated starch is very unstable, a property that has hampered its industrial development throughout its history. He concluded that xyloidin and the new and fascinating cellulose derivative— pyroxylin —were different substances. 

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