Preparation and Characterization of Nitrocellulose Nanofiber

A novel procedure for the preparation of nanosized nitrocellulose (NC) was developed. Cellulose nanofiber (CNF) water suspension was obtained by disk‐milling of cotton powder. CNF was first pretreated using sulfonic acid to enhance the esterification process using HNO3 and H2SO4. The esterification process generated nitrocellulose nanofiber (NCNF) with a nitrogen content of 9.0 %–13.7 %. The Brunauer‐Emmett‐Teller (BET) specific surface area of NCNF was ten times larger than that of NC, and the burning rate of NCNF was 3.5 times faster than that of NC. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was conducted to assess the difference between the thermal stability of NCNF and NC. NCNF and NC exhibited the same onset exothermic temperature (200 °C), the height of the exothermic peak of NCNF was 20 % higher than that of NC. Thus, NCNF has great potential to be used in explosives due to its high combustion performance.