Commonly known as smokeless powder, nitrocellulose is exactly that,it
does not give off smoke when it burns.
The nitration cellulose follows the same principle as in the case of glycerin, namely the treatment of cellulose with nitric acid and the introduction of nitro groups in place of hydrogen atoms. Nitrocellulose like nitroglycerin is misnamed and is actually nitric ester, cellulose nitrate. In the nitration of cellulose, on the other hand, a mixture of cellulose nitrate may be obtained, varying nitrogen content and solubility in organic solvents, depending on the composition of the mixed acids and conditions of nitration.
In the process of nitration, the purified cellulose is immersed in a mixed acid, having, for example, the approximate composition 63% sulphuric acid, 22% nitric acid, and 15% water. It is common to nitrate 14kg of cotton as one charge for about 30 minutes, with agitation, using about 740kg of mixed acid and maintaining the temperature of 30-35 C. then the whole nitrated cellulose is drowned in excess of water, and thus cleaned, for excess acids.
The ' cotton gun ' is the same thing containing mixed acids, sulphuric and nitric acids, for nitration. And followed by boiling it and it's washing. They are highly inflammable and are used for detonators because of their high velocities. They are also used for commercial uses of mining and other explosive purposes
Materials:
Concentrated sulfuric acid
Concentrated nitric acid
Absorbent cotton
Sodium bicarbonate
beaker
Ice bath
Tongs
paper towels
Procedure:
Place 250ml beaker in the ice bath, add 70ml sulfuric acid,30ml
nitric acid.Divide cotton into pieces.With tongs, immerse each piece
in the acid solution for 1 minute.and then rinse each piece in 3 successive baths of water.Use fresh water for each piece.Then immerse in
250ml 1M Sodium Bicarbonate solution.If it bubbles it hints of acid presence so rinse it in water once more until no bubbling occurs with the solution.Squeeze dry and spread on paper towels, compress it into cakes or blocks or gelatanize it with acetone.This is powerful explosive