Defect-engineered sp2 carbon as highly active catalyst and reactive fuel for combustion of ammonium perchlorate

Abstract Defect engineering is a vital technique to modulate the properties of carbon nanomaterials. The unique advantage of intentionally introducing intrinsic defects and heteroatom dopants in sp2 C–C bond framework is to increase the active sites, optimize the adsorption/desorption behavior of the reaction intermediates, and alter the surface charge transfer properties of various electrochemical systems. Herein, a defects and bonding disorder regulation strategy is reported to enhance both catalytic activity and combustion reactivity of sp2 carbon toward the thermal decomposition and combustion of ammonium perchlorate (AP), which is the key reaction of modern solid propellants in aerospace field. A layered defect-rich carbon (LDC) has been prepared by inlayer carbonization of graphite-like 1,3,5-Triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) crystals. The intentionally designed LDC with rich intrinsic defects and N dopants provides abundant active sites for adsorption of AP decomposition intermediates, which facilitates efficient charge transfer in rate controlling steps. Moreover, the LDC with high bond disorder can react with AP as fuel with high reaction kinetics. As compared to other carbon materials with different bonding disorder and defects, this highly reactive catalyst greatly enhances the combustion performance of AP/LDC composites in terms of more complete chemical energy release (increased combustion pressure) and enhanced reaction kinetics (increased burning rate). The defect engineering provides an effective way to activate the inert sp2 carbon materials to efficient combustion catalysts and highly reactive fuels for AP based solid propellants.