The excellent catalytic activity for thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate using porous CuCo2O4 synthesized by template-free solution combustion method

Abstract

Spinel CuCo2O4 with 3D macro-/mesoporous structure has been successfully synthesized via template-free solution combustion method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and N2 absorption/desorption have been done to obtain compositional and morphological information as well as BET surface area of the as-synthesized sample. Catalytic activities of the porous CuCo2O4 towards the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry (TG) techniques. The results show that the addition of spinel CuCo2O4 with 3D macro-/nanoporousstructure to AP remarkably decreases the high temperature decomposition (HTD) from 470.92 °C for pure AP to 308.74 °C for AP containing CuCo2O4 additive with a mass ratio of 2%. The as-synthesized 3D macro-/nanoporous spinel CuCo2O4 is the promising type of catalytic materials for AP-based composite solid rocket propellants. The simple synthesis method is conducive to large-scale industrial production for application in AP thermal decomposition.