A kinetic investigation on the thermal decomposition of propellants catalyzed by rGO/MFe₂O₄ (M = Cu, Co, Ni, Zn) nanohybrids

Reduced graphene oxide/metal ferrite (rGO/MFe₂O₄, M = Cu, Co, Ni) nanohybrids are successfully prepared through a simple, one-step hydrothermal method. The rGO/MFe₂O₄ hybrids are characterized by XRD, TEM. The rGO/MFe₂O₄ nanohybrids demonstrate amazing catalytic activity on thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) based propellants. DSC results indicate that the high-temperature decomposition (HTD) temperature of propellants added with rGO/MFe₂O₄ nanohybrids (3 wt%), could decrease from 325.9 °C to 259.9 °C, 268.8 °C, 271.9 °C, 306.9 °C, respectively. The HTD activation energy on a conversion degree (α) range from 0.05 to 0.95 of propellant samples were investigated by two model-free methods Flynne–Walle–Ozawa (FWO) and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS). The results showed that both methods had similar values of Ea, and they match well with each other. A strong dependence of Ea on α revealed a complex decomposition process. The model-fitting analysis suggested the HTD process of propellant samples with or without catalysts both followed Mampel (First order) reaction model.