Enhanced decomposition of laminated ammonium perchlorate composite

In order to improve the thermal decomposition performances of ammonium perchlorate (AP), the laminated AP composite was prepared by ice-template induced self-assembly method. In this study, Iron-Konjac glucomannan (Fe³⁺-KGM) hydrosol rich in AP was selected as the freezing precursor. Through directional freezing of precursor and recrystallization of AP molecules, the laminated AP composite was obtained. The results showed that the thickness of the lamellar composite structure is about 10 to 30 μm, and the recrystallized AP particles are uniformly dispersed in the gel system. The oxygen bomb test results show that the micro-/nano-layered structure can significantly improve the sample’s combustion heat value. Thermal analyses indicated that with the increasing Fe³⁺ content, the peak exothermic temperature of lamellar AP composite at different heating rates both showed a decreasing trend. With 10 wt% Fe(NO₃)₃·9H₂O added, the decomposition peak temperature decreased from 433.0 to 336.2 °C at a heating rate of 5 °C/min, and the apparent activation energy (E_a) decreased dramatically from 334.1 kJ/mol to 255.4 kJ/mol. A possible catalytic thermal decomposition mechanism of lamellar AP composite catalyzed by Fe³⁺ was proposed. This work is beneficial to the structural design of other energetic materials.