Rheological properties of new stimuli-responsive energetic gels

The relationships between the microstructure and the rheological behavior of energetic gels prepared by carboxymethyl cellulose nitrate(CMCN) of different content group as a gelator were investigated. The yield stress, thixotropy, creep and thermosensitivity of energetic gels were investigated by linear rheological methods and the gel mechanism was discussed. The flow data, creep data and angular frequency data of gels were fitted by Herschel-Bulkley model, Burger model and Carreau-Yasuda model, respectively. The experimental results show that CMCN gel is a physical gel with a relative homogeneous crosslinking network structure which is formed by non-covalent interaction of interchain hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic bonds on the group of amphiphilic CMCN. The non-Newton coefficients n of CMCN gels are all less than 0.5. With the increase of the content of hydrophilic carboxylic group, the yield stress and thixotropy recovery of gels increase gradually. The elastic compliance and viscous compliance of gel decrease while the ratio between them increase. The creep viscous responsivity decrease while elastic responsivity increase. The thermosensitivity of gels have a mechanical relaxation transition region which become more clearly with the increase of the content of carboxylic group, and thermosensitivity of gels increase.