System and method for simultaneous measurement of nitrogen content and uniformity of nitration of nitrocellulose

Nitrocellulose (NC) is a common, commercially available, cellulosederived material and has been functionalized and widely applied in microfluidic technology, immunoassays and biochemical analyses. However, existing testing parameters always fail to completely and accurately reflect its inherent quality. In this study, we have designed and assembled a novel automatic polarizing microscope test system (PMTS) to scientifically test the nitrogen content and uniformity of nitration of NC based on the chromogenic principle of a polarization microscope. The advantages of this system are: (i) the PMTS requires less sample (only a few micrograms); (ii) the test period is shorter and the results can be obtained within 20 min; (iii) the method belongs to the nondestructive testing group, and the NC sample is not burned, dissolved, or damaged; and (iv) this method has increased accuracy, and the deviation of the nitrogen content is less than ±0.05%. The properties of various NC samples prepared by different nitricsulfuric acid systems from raw materials with diverse maturities were determined via PMTS. Five NC samples with different nitrogen contents (10.9%, 11.5%, 11.8%, 12.6% and 13.5%) were tested, and the variance of the corresponding uniformity of nitration of these samples were 3.17, 1.61, 1.15, 1.76, and 2.83. The uniformity of nitration initially decreased and then increased with increasing nitrogen content, and the best uniformity of nitration appeared at a nitrogen content of 12%. We also found that fibre maturity has a positive effect on the uniformity of nitration. This testing device and method, with its cost-effectiveness and field-portability, can significantly improve the accuracy of nitration content and uniformity, and has an important value in practical applications.