Effect of fluorine-containing thermite coated with potassium perchlorate on the thermal decomposition behavior and kinetics of ammonium perchlorate

In the last decade, the decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) has been a major research topic, which is extensively studied by the scientific community. The present work aims to understand the effect of nanothermite on AP thermal decomposition. MgAl-PTFE nanothermite mechanically activated by arrested reactive milling was coated with potassium perchlorate (KP) and characterized. The obtained results revealed that the characteristic XRD signals of phase compositions remain unchanged, indicating that the ball-milling and chemical synthesis processes do not damage the chemical structure of the main components. The SEM micrographs showed that MgAl was uniformly distributed within the PTFE matrix. To assess the decomposition kinetics and understand the catalytic effect of the prepared MgAl-PTFE and MgAl-PTFE@KP on the thermal behavior of AP, DSC analyses were performed. It is demonstrated that the activation energy decreases by about 6%, revealing that the presence of nanothermites promotes the thermal decomposition process of AP.