The effect of oxygen vacancy defects in nano-CuO1−x on its catalytic properties in ammonium perchlorate thermal decomposition

The oxygen vacancy defect engineering has been identified as a valid strategy to modify the physicochemical and catalytic properties of semiconductor catalysts, but it's rarely used in combustion catalyst. Herein, a novel oxygen deficient copper oxide (CuO1−x) nano-combustion catalyst was successfully prepared by a two-step process involving the controlled chemical precipitation and vacuum sintering. As expected, the CuO1−x exhibits enhanced catalytic activity towards the ammonium perchlorate (AP) thermal decomposition. Once CuO1−x nanocatalyst was added, the high-temperature decomposition peak temperature (THTD) and the apparent activation energy (Ea) of AP are respectively decreased by 109.2 °C and 79.2 kJ/mol, higher than those of commercial nano-CuO (80.6 °C and 56.4 kJ/mol), showing significant oxygen vacancy defect effects. In addition, the effect of oxygen vacancy defects in CuO1−x on the catalytic thermal decomposition behaviors and mechanism of AP were investigated by thermal analysis techniques and density functional theory for the first time. The results prove that the improved catalytic performance of CuO1−x towards the thermal decomposition of AP might relate to the enhanced adsorption and bonding capacity with NH3, which helps to prevent the accumulation of NH3 and consequently promote the thermal decomposition reaction of AP.