One-pot hydrothermal synthesis of reduced graphene oxide/zinc ferrite nanohybrids and its catalytic activity on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate

Reduced graphene oxide/Zinc ferrite (rGO/ZnFe₂O₄) nanohybrids are successfully decorated on the surface of the rGO sheets through a simple, one-step hydrothermal method. ZnFe₂O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) are homogeneously anchored on the rGO sheets. The rGO/ZnFe₂O₄ hybrids are characterized by XRD, FT-IR, XPS, TEM, Raman, BET. The rGO/ZnFe₂O₄ hybrids demonstrate amazing catalytic activity on thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP), which is better than that of bare ZnFe₂O₄ NPs. TG-DTA results indicate that the ZnFe₂O₄ NPs in the hybrids with increasing ratio (1%, 3%, 5%) could decrease the second decomposition temperature of AP by 42.7 °C, 55.0 °C, 68.1 °C, respectively, and reduce the apparent activation energy of AP from 160.2 kJ mol⁻¹ to 103.8 kJ mol⁻¹. This enhanced catalytic performance is mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of ZnFe₂O₄ NPs and rGO.