Starch nitrate applications

The post nitrated polymer has a Qc of 2832 cal/g (liq H20 at 25°), an impact sensy of 90cm at the 50% point using a BM machine with a 2kg wt (RDX, 28cm), a thermal stability at 65.5° of 10 mins using a 1.3g sample with KI-Starch indicator paper (Ref NC, 10 mins, no color), and a rel vise of 1.13 centipoises at 25° using a 1% dimethylformamide soln Refs 1) P.J. Blatzet al, Research In Nitro-polymers and Their Application To Solid Smokeless Propellants , Report No 740, Aerojet-General Corp, Azusa, Calif, ONR Contract N7 onr-462, Task Order 1(15 Sept 1953), 26 2)... 

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. 

The degradation of nitrostarch is also considerable, if starch is nitrated by means of a mixed acid composed of nitric and sulphuric acid. On the contrary, application of nitrating mixture consisting of nitric acid and ortho-phosphoric acid makes it possible to obtain a product nearly twice as viscous as that obtained by treatment with a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acid (T. Urbanski and Kapu-Scihski [36]). This shows that the mixture of nitric and phosphoric acid causes less degradation of starch than nitric acid alone or mixed with sulphuric acid. Previously, Berl and Kunze [37] had come to the same conclusion. They found the product of... 

In 1833 Braconnot obtained nitric esters of cellulose and starch by acting with nitric acid on plant fibres and starch, at low temperature, hi 1834 Mitscherlich nitrated benzene to nitrobenzene. But it is only since 1842, when Zinin reduced nitrobenzene to aniline, that rapid development of the chemistry of nitro compounds and their application to organic industry has occurred. 

Other earlier applications of nitrated starch included propellants,1468 nitrogen fertilizers used together with ammonium salts,1469 a component of ignition preparations,1470 and a lacquer component.1471-1473 It has been used as a lacquer component because of its resinous properties, its ability to combine physically with synthetic resins,1474 and also because of its solubility in alcohols and aromatic hydrocarbons. 

Natural polymers unlike the S5mthetic ones do possess very complex structure. Natural polymers such as cellulose, wool, and natural rubber are used in many products in large proportions. Cellulose derivatives are one of the most versatile groups of regenerated materials with various fields of application. Cellulose is found in nature in all forms of plant life, particularly in wood and cotton. The purest form of cellulose is obtained from the seed hairs of the cotton plant that contains up to 95% cellulose. The first cellulose derivatives came to the stage around 1845 when the nitration of starch and paper led to discovery of cellulose nitrate. In 1865, for the first time, a moldable thermoplastic made of cellulose nitrate and castor oil. 

Some of the more important applications in food analysis include nitrates and nitrites in baby food products, excess of which can lead to induce methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome), and the monitoring of sulfite, which is added to many foodstuffs as a preservative and to bleach food starches, and is only recently being linked to serious health effects. Also, residual bromate can be monitored in bakery products from the continuing use of bromate salts as dough conditioners. 

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