Special Aspects of Nitrocellulose Molar Mass Determination by Dynamic Light Scattering

The dynamic light scattering method was successfully applied to determine the molar mass of nitrocellulose. The methodology of nitrocellulose fractionation in acetonic solutions is described in detail; six polymer fractions with monomodal distribution were obtained. It was shown that the unfractionated colloxylin with polymodal molar mass distribution had mass average molecular mass values of 87.3 +/- 14.1, 28.3 +/- 7.3, and 0.54 +/- 0.17 kDa when investigated by the dynamic light scattering method. The viscometric method only provided integral viscosity average molar mass equal to 56.7 +/- 5.8 kDa.

Automated summary

The molar mass of nitrocellulose was successfully determined using the dynamic light scattering method. The methodology for fractionating nitrocellulose in acetonic solutions and obtaining six polymer fractions with monomodal distribution is described. It was found that the unfractionated colloxylin had a polymodal molar mass distribution, with mass average molecular mass values of 87.3 +/- 14.1, 28.3 +/- 7.3, and 0.54 +/- 0.17 kDa when investigated by the dynamic light scattering method. The viscometric method provided an integral viscosity average molar mass of 56.7 +/- 5.8 kDa.