Effect of inorganic salt on the thermal degradation of nitrocellulose and reaction mechanism of its mixture

In this study, to better understand the reaction mechanism between inorganic salts and nitrocellulose, CaCO 3 and Li 2 CO 3 were evaluated with respect to their effects on the thermal degradation of NC in nitrogen atmosphere using TG/DSC at three different heating rates (2, 5, 10 K/min). The numerical relationship between activation energy ( E ) and conversion rate was obtained by FWO and KAS method, and it was discovered that CaCO 3 could improve the thermal stability of NC. Activation energy values were calculated by Kissinger method, and it was found that NC that contain Li 2 CO 3 had the highest activation energy while NC containing CaCO 3 had the lowest E value. By combining the thermal analysis data with Malek method, the most probable mechanism model of thermal degradation is obtained as Šesták-Berggren model, which expression is f ( α ) =  α m (1 - α ) n . As a result of this study, there are certain guiding principles that can be applied to the pyrolysis reaction model and to the actual production process of nitrocellulose.