New Insights into the Catalytic Decomposition of Ammonium Perchlorate and Decomposition Mechanism by Nano‐CuO Dispersed in Graphite‐Carbon Nitride Nanosheet Composites

Enhancing the exothermic decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) is of great significance to obtain solid propellants with excellent combustion performance. Herein, we prepared a series of composites for catalyzing the exothermic decomposition of AP by a facile method with different masses of nano copper oxide (n‐CuO) dispersed in graphene‐nitride carbon (g‐C3N4) nanosheets. Among them, n‐CuO‐8/g‐C3N4 showed the best catalytic activity, which reduced the high‐temperature decomposition (HTD) value by 95.0 °C, and increased the total heat release by 505 J ⋅ g−1. The n‐CuO‐12/g‐C3N4 also reduced the activation energy (Ea) of the HTD stage by 47.34 kJ ⋅ mol−1. The catalytic mechanism study suggested that the n‐CuO‐X/g‐C3N4 composites promoted the transition of electrons (e−) and holes (h+) from ClO4− to NH4+ and inhibited the recombination of e− and h+, which further enhanced the exothermic decomposition of AP. During decomposition, the transformation of N2O to NO was significantly inhibited by the n‐CuO‐X/g‐C3N4 composites, thus increasing the integral heat release as evidenced by Real‐time thermogravimetry/Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. This study illustrated that n‐CuO‐X/g‐C3N4 composites are catalysts for the efficient decomposition of AP, which further enhance the energy performance of solid propellants. In this study, n‐CuO‐X/g‐C3N4 composites have been synthesized and were applied for catalyzing AP thermal decomposition. The generated n‐CuO/g‐C3N4 composites were the excellent catalyst for AP‐based composite solid propellants to improve their decomposition efficiency and energy output. The thermal decomposition mechanism of AP was investigated and n‐CuO‐X/g‐C3N4 composites could effectively change the thermal decomposition path of AP and significantly inhibited the conversion of N2O to NO during decomposition, thus increasing the apparent heat release of AP decomposition.