Chaetomium elatum treatment of nitrocellulose: investigation on structural and thermal properties

Biological methods present a sustainable approach for treating various waste polymers due to green, low-cost, mild condition and simple operation. This study, a novel biological method to process nitrocellulose (NC) to obtain NC with low nitrogen via nitrate ester removal using fungal Chaetomium elatu m is proposed. The N% of NC continuously declined during the course of six days, from 13.06% to 11.71%, and the intensity of its energetic groups (O-NO 2 , -NO 2 ) also weakened. An examination of the thermal properties of NC revealed that the weight-loss ratio decreased after biotreatment from 86.33% (untreated NC) to 66.20% (treated NC).Furthermore, the kinetic parameters of the thermal decomposition reaction with DSC were calculated and the activation energy ( E a ) of biotreated NC was higher than that of the original, indicating the thermal stability was enhanced. Hence, this structure exploration and thermal analysis provide new methods for further investigating the mechanism of the biological denitrification process and assessing the safety of biotreated NC.