Kinetics of Thermal Decomposition of Ammonium Perchlorate with Nanocrystals of Binary Transition Metal Ferrites

Binary transition metal ferrite (BTMF) nanocrystals of formula MFe(2)O(4) (M =Cu, Co, Ni) were prepared by the coprecipitation method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD). XRD patterns gave average particle size by using Scherrer's equation for CuFe(2)O(4) (CuF), CoFe(2)O(4) (CoF), and NiFe(2)O(4) (NiF) as 39.9, 27.3, and 43.8 nm. respectively. The catalytic activity measurements on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) were carried out by using thermogravimetry (TG), differential thermal analysis (DTA), and ignition delay studies. Isothermal TG data up to a mass loss of 45% have been used to evaluate kinetic parameters by using model fitting as well as isoconversional method. The order of catalytic activity was found to be: CoFe(2)O(4)> CuFe(2)O(4)> NiFe(2)O(4)