Preparation, Characterization, and Catalytic Activity of Nanosized NiO and ZnO: Part 74

Nanocrystals of NiO and ZnO were prepared by a novel refluxing method and characterized by XRD and TEM. The average particles size of NiO and ZnO were found to be 6 and 31 nm, respectively, from the XRD patterns. These Transition Metal Oxide Nanocrystals (TMONs) were found to catalyze the thermal decomposition of 5‐nitro‐1, 2, 4‐triazol‐3‐one (NTO). Between the two TMOs, ZnO was found to have better catalytic activity than NiO. Kinetic parameters for the isothermal decomposition of NTO in presence and absence of these metal oxides were obtained using a model‐free isoconversional method. The activation energy for NTO, NTO+1 %NiO, and NTO+1 %ZnO was found to be 60.1, 52.1, and 47.9 kJ mol−1 and a similar order was found from the explosion studies (36.1, 31.6, and 27.4 kJ mol−1, respectively).