Ferrocene‐based pyrazole energetic compounds as burning rate catalysts for the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate

Abstract

To enhance the combustion performance of composite solid propellants (CSPs), a series of ferrocene‐based pyrazole energetic compounds were prepared and characterized systemically by spectroscopic techniques in this study. Moreover, their catalytic performance and mechanism as burning rate catalysts (BRCs) were investigated, and the related kinetic parameters were obtained via Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO) and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS) methods, respectively. Besides, their anti‐migration performance and mechanism were studied via simulating the aging experiments of propellant samples at different times. The results showed that these compounds exhibited excellent catalytic effect on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate, which is a vital oxidizer in CSPs and determines its combustion performance. Among them, EMFc‐1 showed the best catalytic performance because of the higher content of active component. The pyrolysis temperature of ammonium perchlorate was reduced by 56.2 °C and the heat release was increased by 248.2 J g−1 with 5 wt% EMFc‐1 as catalyst. Moreover, their anti‐migration performance was improved greatly compared with the commercial catocene (Cat) and ferrocene. The work indicates that these compounds can be applied as BRCs to enhance the combustion performance of propellants.