The thermal behavior and decomposition mechanism of nitrate glycerol ether cellulose(NGEC) were studied by means of TG/DTG,DSC and solid reaction cell in situ in conjunction with rapidscan Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (RFSTIR) for measuring the condensed phase decomposition products in real time. The kinetics parameters (activation energy and preexponential factor) and the free energy activation,enthalpy of activation and entropy of activation for decomposition reaction were computed by using the Kissinger′mothod,Ozawa′s method and thermodynamic relations. Based on the characteristic temperature from the nonisothermal DSC curves,the critical temperature of thermal explosion of NGEC was estimated.