Kinetics of thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate with nanocrystals of NixCo1−x Fe2O4 (x = 0, 0.05, and 1) ferrites

Ni x Co 1−x Fe 2 O 4 ( x = 0, 0.5, and 1) spinel nanoparticles (NPs) have been prepared using the ceramic method and Ni 0.5 Co 0.5 Fe 2 O 4 using green, microwave, and sol–gel routes. The as-prepared materials were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, SEM TEM, and N 2 adsorption/desorption techniques. The catalytic activity, thermal stability, and kinetic parameters of the effect of synthesized materials upon thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) were studied through differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric techniques (TG). The addition of 2 mass% of nanosized ferrites to AP shifted the thermal degradation temperature of AP to lower temperatures. The catalytic activity for AP thermal degradation followed the order: NiCoF-gl > NiCoF-gr > NiCoF-mic > NiCoF-cer > NiF > CoF. The kinetic parameters for the ferrite-catalyzed reaction, using the isoconversional methods for NiCoF-gl, showed a decrease in the activation energy and preexponential factor of ammonium perchlorate thermal dissociation compared with the uncatalyzed one. The thermokinetic parameters for the catalytic decomposition process were determined and a mechanism was suggested for the kinetic reaction. The DSC results showed that the decomposition temperatures of AP decreased with the addition of the ferrites. The heat releases of the AP/ferrite mixtures were 0.82, 0.89, 0.91, 0.98, 1.04 and 1.23 kJ g −1 of AP, for CoF, NiF, NiCoF-cer, NiCoF-gr, NiCoF-mic, and NiCoF-gl, respectively, compared to 0.72 kJ g −1 for neat AP.