Preparation of Nano ferric oxide and catalytic performance on thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate

摘要

A lot of attention has been given to incorporation of Nano-sized oxides including Fe_2O_3 in ammonium perchlorate (AP) based solid propellants to enhance their final performance. Nano ferric oxide was synthesized by a solid-state reaction method. The obtained products were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) for particle size and purity. Size reduction of the catalyst increases the surface area and hence, the catalytic activity is also increased. The thermal behaviour of AP in the presence of Nano-ferric oxide was studied by using differential scanning calorimetriy (DSC). It was found that the average particle size of Nano-ferric oxide prepared was in the range of 30 run. Interestingly, catalytic activity of AP where the rate of thermal decomposition of AP in the presence of 1% Nano-ferric oxide increased 10% , which have a direct effect on the burning behaviour of propellant formulations.