Understanding the compatibility of Nitrocellulose with Polyester based Polyurethane binder

Abstract

Polyester-based polyurethane elastomers have been established to be effective binders for composites with improved performance. Chemical compatibility testing is a significant part of the procedure for developing novel high-energy composites. Indeed, the chemical compatibility of binders is investigated to assess inherent dangers when associated with other energetic constituents during production, storage and handling. This study concerns the evaluation of the compatibility of nitrocellulose with polyurethane (PU) binder formulations. Thermal methods such as DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) and VST (Vacuum stability test) were used. Additionally, physicochemical techniques, namely, FTIR (Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy) and XRD (X-ray diffraction) were employed to corroborate the thermal analysis results. The Compatibility of the various admixtures was confirmed through an additional kinetic study for which the Arrhenius parameters were computed by different isoconversional kinetic approaches, namely, iterative Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (It-KAS), iterative Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (It-FWO) and Vyazovkin’s nonlinear integral with compensation effect (VYA/CE) methods. The obtained results from the different techniques are presented and discussed.