Increased formation of higher-valence nitrogen oxides: The catalytic effect of altered cobalt-loaded carbon on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate

Adding catalysts to regulate the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) is an important means to improve the combustion performance of propellants. In this paper, carbon materials derived from zeolitic imidazolate frameworks(ZIFs) are used as catalysts to effectively reduce the decomposition temperature of AP. Through this study, it is found that Co dispersed on the carbon substrate is the key to catalyse the thermal decomposition of AP, and the pyrolysis temperature of AP shows a significant decrease with the rise of Co content. Among them, the Co&ZDPC obtained by using ZIF-67 as the precursor has the highest Co content and thus shows the most excellent catalytic performance. Compared with the exothermic peaks of pure AP at 310.3 °C and 405.6 °C, respectively, the exothermic peaks of AP with the addition of Co&ZDPC are merged into a single one at 310.5 °C, which is 95.1 °C lower than that of the original high-temperature decomposition peak. At the same time, the exothermic amount is greatly increased to 1908 J/g.