Enhanced catalytic performance on the thermal decomposition of TKX-50 by Fe3O4 nanoparticles highly dispersed on rGO

Fe3O4/reduced graphene oxide (Fe3O4/rGO) nanocomposite has been successfully fabricated using a modified interface solvothermal method and characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In the preparation procedure, graphene oxide was reduced and ultrafine Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) were uniformly loaded on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) carrier. Scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope images and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller specific surface area revealed that the aggregation of Fe3O4 NPs was greatly reduced by introducing rGO as a substrate. The average size of the Fe3O4 NPs anchored on the graphene sheets was 100 nm, which is much smaller than 1-μm bare Fe3O4. The DSC results showed that Fe3O4/rGO nanocomposite reduces the first decomposition temperature of dihydroxylammonium 5,5′-bistetrazole-1,1′-diolate (TKX-50) by 44.9 °C and decreases the apparent activation energy of TKX-50 by 26.2 kJ mol−1, which exhibits higher catalytic performance than its individual components and their physical mixture (hybrid). Hence, Fe3O4/rGO nanocomposite can be a promising additive for insensitive solid propellants based on TKX-50.