Effects of Fe2O3 on the Thermal Decomposition Properties of Nitrocellulose

Abstract： The rodlike and polyhedral Fe2O3 nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by the hydrothermal method. The products were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Effects of Fe2O3 on the thermal decomposition property of nitrocellulose (NC) were presented. The kinetic model function of NC and two NC-Fe2O3 is investigated and classified as Avrami-Erofeev equation f(α)=3(1-α)[-ln(1-α)]1/3/2 in differential form. Furthermore, the results indicate that the effects of Fe2O3 are dependent on the specific surface area. The apparent activation energy and pre-exponential constant of rodlike Fe2O3 are lower with the higher specific surface area than that of polyhedral Fe2O3. This work is very significant for choosing the Fe2O3 with special morphologies in order to improve their catalytic action.