One-Pot Preparation of HTPB/nNi and Its Catalyst for AP.

The liquid phase reduction method is a common method used for preparing nano-nickel powder (nNi). However, the nNi surface is easily oxidized to form nickel oxide film, which affects its performance. In this work, nNi was prepared using anhydrous ethanol as a solvent and hydrazine hydrate as a reducing agent. Furthermore, HTPB/nNi composites were prepared using hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) as a coating agent. The structure and morphology of the samples are characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The catalytic behavior of HTPB/nNi on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) is studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analyzer (TG). The results show that HTPB/nNi has little effect on the low temperature thermal decomposition of AP, but the peak of high temperature thermal decomposition advances from 456 °C to 332 °C.