A kinetic investigation on the thermal decomposition of propellants catalyzed by rGO/MFe2O4 (M= Cu, Co, Ni, Zn) nanohybrids

Publication date: Available online 14 November 2018Source: Journal of Saudi Chemical SocietyAuthor(s): Weiran Wang, Dongxiang ZhangAbstractReduced graphene oxide/metal ferrite (rGO/MFe2O4, M=Cu, Co, Ni) nanohybrids are successfully prepared through a simple, one-step hydrothermal method. The rGO/MFe2O4 hybrids are characterized by XRD, TEM. The rGO/MFe2O4 nanohybrids demonstrate amazing catalytic activity on thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) based propellants. DSC results indicate that the high-temperature decomposition (HTD) temperature of propellants added with rGO/MFe2O4 nanohybrids (3 wt.%), could decrease from 325.9°C to 259.9°C ,268.8°C, 271.9°C, 306.9°C, respectively. The HTD activation energy on a conversion degree (α) range from 0.05 to 0.95 of propellant samples were investigated by two model-free methods Flynne-Walle-Ozawa(FWO) and Kissinger-Akahira -Sunose(KAS). The results showed that both methods had similar values of Ea, and they match well with each other. A strong dependence of Ea on α revealed a complex decomposition process. The model-fitting analysis suggested the HTD process of propellant samples with or without catalysts both followed Mampel (First order) reaction model.
Source: Journal of Saudi Chemical Society - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research