Effect of plasticizer dibutyl phthalate on the thermal decomposition of nitrocellulose

This paper aims to investigate the effects of plasticizer dibutyl phthalate (DBP) on the thermal decomposition of nitrocellulose (NC) by using a series of analytical apparatuses. In the present study, the detailed structures of pure NC (NC-P) and NC with DBP (NC-D) were revealed by scanning electron microscope. It was found that the fibers in NC-D are more closely aligned than those in NC-P, which makes the thermal behaviors of NC-D different from NC-P. The thermal stability of both NC-P and NC-D was examined by means of simultaneous TG-DSC apparatus (STA). Three different kinetic methods (Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose method, Ozawa–Flynn–Wall method, and Friedman method) were applied for determining the activation energy E of these two NC samples. Moreover, the experimental data were compared with sigmoidal models and pre-exponential factor was calculated by compensation effect. Besides, in situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and a TGA instrument coupled with Frontier FTIR spectrometer were employed to investigate the characteristic functional groups of decomposition residues and gaseous products at different temperatures, respectively. The results show that NC-P and NC-D have similar decomposition products and decomposition mechanisms.