Amorphous Fe2O3 nanoparticles were prepared by precipitation method. These nanoparticles were dipped in dilute sulfuric acid and then were calcined at different temperature. After that, the SO42-/Fe2O3 solid strong acids with particle size of 30-40 nm were fabricated. Thermal analyses were recruited to probe the catalysis of nanometer Fe2O3 and nanometer SO42-/Fe2O3 on decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) and ammonium nitrate (AN). The results indicated that in case of AP, the peak temperature decreased by 35.1°C and 98.7°C in use of Fe2O3 and SO42-/Fe2O3 as catalysts respectively. In the case of AN, the peak temperature lowered by 2.2°C and 18.0°C in use of Fe2O3 and SO42-/Fe2O3 as catalysts respectively. DSC-IR analysis were performed to investigate decomposition products of [AP+3%SO42-/ Fe2O3] and [AN+3%SO42-/Fe2O3]. The results demonstrated that [AP+3%SO42-/Fe2O3] decomposed to NO2, NOCl, N2O, HClO4, NO, HCl, and H2O. For [AN+3%SO42-/Fe2O3 ], the decomposition products were massive N2O and few H2O. Note that there was no NH3 presented in products, which meant that the decomposition reaction proceeded very completely. According to the detected products, the possible decomposition mechanism of AP and AN were derived. Meanwhile, the catalysis mechanisms of SO42-/Fe2O3 were discussed in detail.
nanoparticles, solid strong acid, oxidizer, thermal decomposition, mechanism