Cu/Carbon Aerogels Derived from HKUST-1 for the Thermal Decomposition of Ammonium Perchlorate

The thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) directly determines the comprehensive performance of the solid propellants. This work reports a convenient strategy for preparing Cu/C aerogels by the water-induced self-assembly of HKUST-1. Always, this nanomaterial was successfully used in thermal catalysis of AP and exhibited excellent catalytic behavior. The results showed that adding 5% Cu/C aerogels could increase the peak temperature of AP decomposition by about 60 °C, and thermal decomposition activation energy reduced by 82.12 kJ·mol –1 . Finally, combining kinetics and density functional theory calculations, the thermal catalytic mechanism of the four-step decomposition of AP has been proposed.