Possible approaches to environmental safety of nitrocellulose powder production
The paper provides an insight into an important problem of ensuring environmental safety of the production of nitrocellulose powders from cellulose raw materials of natural origin. The authors propose two approaches in order to ensure the environmental safety of gunpowder production, diversifying raw material resources base and reducing the amount of produced waste. The first approach is based on applying synthetic cellulose for replacing natural cellulose, while the second one involves the use of polymers derived from polynitrotriazoles of various structure. A feasibility for obtaining cellulose nitrates with nitrogen content of at least 13.4% from synthetic cellulose has been demonstrated, and the structure of the samples prepared is investigated in comparison with that of various types of cellulose. Both methods of replacing natural cellulose with synthetic materials are expected to provide reduction of toxic waste, however, the use of polynitrotriazole derived raw materials would also significantly increase the energetic performance of gunpowder in addition to the improvement of environmental safety of gunpowder production.