INTERPRETATION OF THE IR-SPECTRUM AND STRUCTURE OF CELLULOSE NITRATE

Based on our experimental data on the polarized IR spectra of the orie nted fiber of cellulose nitrate (CN), the IR spectra of N-15 CN, and i ts structural data published earlier, we have revised the interpretati on of the IR spectrum of CN and give a more specific interpretation. W e established a relationship between the form of vibration bands of th e nitrate groups and their position and conformation state in the gluc opyranose cycle of CN. The relative intensities of the valence vibrati on bands of the CH2 groups are explained by the Fermi resonance with a complex tone of valence vibrations of the nitrate groups. In view of the strong dichroism of some low-frequency bands in the IR spectrum of CN, we offer assignments of these bands to vibrations of the chain sk eleton and suggest the rationale for the high orientation of CN macrom olecules both in the ordered and disordered regions. Such an orientati on is assumed to be ''inherited'' by CN from the starting cellulose.