Estimation on the Safe Storage Temperature of Nitrocellulose with Different Humectants

In order to estimate the safe storage temperatures of nitrocellulose (NC) with different humectants (water, ethanol, and isopropanol), non-isothermal experiments were performed by a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). Thermodynamic parameters were simulated by thermal safety software (TSS). Comparison of autocatalytic simulation and nth order simulation was conducted. Also, Kissiger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) and Ozawa-Flynn-Wall (OFW) methods were employed to validate the simulated activation energy E, whose results indicated that the average E calculated by KAS and OFW methods is lower than that simulated by autocatalytic simulation. Finally, the critical temperatures of time to maximum rate (TMR) and time to conversion limit (TCL) were estimated. The results show that the critical temperature of pure NC is higher than that of NC with humectants, which indicates that NC with humectants possess a higher thermal instability at an identical temperature. In addition, to ensure the effectiveness of NC products, storage temperatures of pure NC and NC-humectants were also simulated.