One-pot hydrothermal synthesis of reduced graphene oxide/zinc ferrite nanohybrids and its catalytic activity on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate

Reduced graphene oxide/Zinc ferrite (rGO/ZnFe2O4) nanohybrids are successfully decorated on the surface of the rGO sheets through a simple, one-step hydrothermal method. ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles (NPs) are homogeneously anchored on the rGO sheets. The rGO/ZnFe2O4 hybrids are characterized by XRD, FT-IR, XPS, TEM, Raman, BET. The rGO/ZnFe2O4 hybrids demonstrate amazing catalytic activity on thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP), which is better than that of bare ZnFe2O4 NPs. TG-DTA results indicate that the ZnFe2O4 NPs in the hybrids with increasing ratio (1%, 3%, 5%) could decrease the second decomposition temperature of AP by 42.7 degrees C, 55.0 degrees C, 68.1 degrees C, respectively, and reduce the apparent activation energy of AP from 160.2 kJ mol(-1) to 103.8 kJ mol(-1). This enhanced catalytic performance is mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of ZnFe2O4 NPs and rGO. (C) 2018 King Saud University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.