Preparation and characterization of rice-shaped MnO 2 /CNTs composite and superior catalytic activity on thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate.

Manganese dioxides (MnO2) were successfully deposited on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) surface by redox reaction between potassium permanganate and CNTs. The characterization results showed that the MnO2exhibited the rice-shaped nanostructure with about 5∼10 nm in width and 10∼30 nm in the length on CNTs. The solvothermal temperature of composite can greatly affected its morphology and structure to improve the thermal catalytic on ammonium perchlorate (AP) decomposition. Compared with other samples, the prepared composite at 120°C exhibited superior catalytic performance, as 3wt% of composite added in AP, the second exothermic peak temperature decreased by 160.2°C and the apparent release heat of the thermal decomposition of AP which is four times of that of pure AP. A possible mechanism for formation the rice shaped MnO2/CNTs composite is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]