A promising energetic biopolymer based on azide-functionalized microcrystalline cellulose: Synthesis and characterization. (1st December 2020) - Tarchoun, Ahmed Fouzi
Graphical abstract: Highlights: Renewable MCC was explored to design promising nitrogen-rich energetic biopolymer. A novel high-energy dense AMCCN was produced through an efficient approach. The novel synthesized NAMCCN revealed reduced sensitivity and high performance. AMCCN presents better features than the APCN, common PCN and MCCN. Abstract: In the current investigation, azidodeoxy-microcrystalline cellulose nitrate (AMCCN) as a novel promising nitrogen-rich energetic biopolymer was synthesized, and its features were compared to those of azidodeoxy-pristine cellulose nitrate (APCN), conventional cellulose nitrate (PCN) and microcrystalline cellulose nitrate (MCCN). The produced nitrated samples and their precursors were fully characterized using various analytical techniques. In addition, the heats of combustion and mechanical sensitivities of all nitrated biopolymers were evaluated, and their energetic performances were predicted by EXPLO5 V6.04 software. The obtained results provide evidence for the effectiveness of the applied chemical functionalization approach to synthesize the relatively insensitive AMCCN and APCN with nitrogen content of 22.75 % and 22.50 %, density of 1.718 g/cm 3 and 1.706 g/cm 3, and detonation velocity of 7707 m/s and 7533 m/s, respectively, which are higher than those of PCN. This work opens avenues to design promising energetic biopolymers based on renewable microcrystalline cellulose for potential application in advanced high performance solid propellants and explosives.