Facile synthesis of flower-like ZnO@Fe2O3 hierarchical nanostructures with enhanced catalytic activity on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate

Abstract This paper reports a facile two-step hydrothermal method for the fabrication of f-ZnO@Fe 2 O 3 nanostructures. Various characterization results show that the hierarchical nanocomposites are formed by the loading of well-crystallized α-Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles onto the flower-like ZnO. The nanostructures exhibit large specific surface area and narrow mesoporous size distribution. Morphological measurements indicate that Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles are densely and uniformly attached onto the entire surface of the f-ZnO. The catalytic performance of the f-ZnO@Fe 2 O 3 on the thermal decomposition of AP is measured by TG and DTA methods. The results demonstrate that the f-ZnO@Fe 2 O 3 nanostructures can lower the decomposition temperature and accelerate the decomposition process of ammonium perchlorate, which may be presumably ascribed to the synergistic effect between f-ZnO and α-Fe 2 O 3 nanoparticles.