Thermal Decomposition of Ammonium Perchlorate in thePresence of Nanosized Ferric Oxide

Abstract

The catalytic effect of two different sizes of a-Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles synthesised using an electrochemical method was investigated on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) using differential scanning calorimetry as a function of catalyst concentration. The nanosized ferric oxide particles exhibited more of a catalytic effect on the thermal decomposition of AP than commercial Fe 2 O 3 particles. A lowering of the high-temperature decomposition of AP by 59 o C was observed after mixing with 2 Wt per cent of a-Fe 2 O 3 particles with the very fine size of 3.5 nm. The mixture produced a high heat release of 4.574 kJ/ g compared to 0.834 kJ/g of pure AP. The kinetic parameters were evaluated using Kissinger method. The decrease in the activation energy and increase in rate constant confirmed the catalytic activity of these nanoparticles.

Synthesis, Characterization and Applications of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles - a Short Review

“…This way, they permit burning rate tailoring to fit a specific grain design. Since the combustion mechanism of propellants is very much dependent upon the decomposition of ammonium perchlorate, there are many studies concerning the catalytic effect of nanosized ferric oxide on thermal decomposition of the oxidizer (Ma et al 2006;Joshi et al 2008;Fujimura and Miyake 2010).…”

“…In the field of solid propulsion, nanosized transition metallic oxides such as iron oxide, hematite (α-Fe 2 O 3 ) and maghemite (g-Fe 2 O 3 ) are materials that stand out as burn catalysts in thermal combustion reactions (Joshi et al 2008;Chaturvedi et al 2012;Patil et al 2006).…”

“…Indeed, the decomposition of ammonium perchlorate is rather complicated mainly because this simple molecule consists of four different elements (Joshi et al 2008;Chaturvedi et al 2012). The most important crystalline transitions of ammonium perchlorate are: orthorhombic at temperature below 513 K and cubic one, which is stable at temperatures above 513 K (Boldyrev 2006).…”

Nano-metal oxide: potential catalyst on thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate

“…The authors studied the thermal decomposition of AP/hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB)-based composite propellant both in the presence and absence of nanoferric oxide and achieved high heat release, up to 40% with the retention of well-separated necklace-like structure of -Fe 2 O 3 in HTPB [70]. Joshi et al [24] studied the effect of various percentages of nanosized Fe 2 O 3 as additive in AP. Results show enhanced thermal decomposition with increased percentage of additive.…”

“…Recent investigations have shown that nanoparticles of transition metal oxides (TMOs), without any agglomeration can increase the burning rate [22] of propellants. The efficiency of catalytic action increases sharply in nanosized oxide particles than microscale oxide particles [23,24]. The size distribution, morphology and nanostructure of particles are very important characteristics and they do affect the kinetics of decomposition of AP.…”