New Insights into the Catalytic Decomposition of Ammonium Perchlorate and Decomposition Mechanism by Nano‐CuO Dispersed in Graphite‐Carbon Nitride Nanosheet Composites

Abstract Enhancing the exothermic decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) is of great significance to obtain solid propellants with excellent combustion performance. Herein, we prepared a series of composites for catalyzing the exothermic decomposition of AP by a facile method with different masses of nano copper oxide (n‐CuO) dispersed in graphene‐nitride carbon (g‐C₃N₄) nanosheets. Among them, n‐CuO‐8/g‐C₃N₄ showed the best catalytic activity, which reduced the high‐temperature decomposition (HTD) value by 95.0 °C, and increased the total heat release by 505 J ⋅ g⁻¹. The n‐CuO‐12/g‐C₃N₄ also reduced the activation energy (E_a) of the HTD stage by 47.34 kJ ⋅ mol⁻¹. The catalytic mechanism study suggested that the n‐CuO‐X/g‐C₃N₄ composites promoted the transition of electrons (e⁻) and holes (h⁺) from ClO₄⁻ to NH₄⁺ and inhibited the recombination of e⁻ and h⁺, which further enhanced the exothermic decomposition of AP. During decomposition, the transformation of N₂O to NO was significantly inhibited by the n‐CuO‐X/g‐C₃N₄ composites, thus increasing the integral heat release as evidenced by Real‐time thermogravimetry/Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. This study illustrated that n‐CuO‐X/g‐C₃N₄ composites are catalysts for the efficient decomposition of AP, which further enhance the energy performance of solid propellants.