Synthesis and characterization of Cu-Cr-O nanocomposites

Cu-Cr-O nanocomposites that can be used as additives for the catalytic combustion of AP(ammonium perchlorate)-based solid-state propellants were synthesized via a citric acid(CA) complexing approach. Techniques of TG-DTA, XRD as well as TEM were employed to characterize the thermal decomposition procedure, crystal phase, micro-structural morphologies and grain size of the as-synthesized materials respectively. The results show that well-crystallized Cu-Cr-O nanocomposites can be produced after the CA-Cu-Cr precursors are calcined at 500 ℃ for 3 h. Phase composition of the as-obtained Cu-Cr-O nanocomposites depends on the molar ratio of Cu to Cr in the starting reactants. Addition of the as-synthesized Cu-Cr-O nanocomposites as catalysts enhances the burning rate as well as lowers the pressure exponent of the AP-based solid-state propellants considerably. Noticeably, catalyst with a Cu/Cr molar ratio of 0.7 exhibits promising catalytic activity with high burning rate and low pressure exponent at all pressures, due to the effective phase interaction between the spinel CuCr2O4 and delafossite CuCrO2 contained in the as-synthesized Cu-Cr-O nanocomposites.