Preparation of magnetic Ni-P amorphous alloy microspheres and their catalytic performance towards thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate

In this work, a series of amorphous Ni-P alloys with diverse microspheric structures and magnetic properties were successfully prepared through a facile aqueous solution reduction using sodium hypophosphite as reducing agent with the assistance of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and laser particle size analysis were used to investigate the structure of Ni-P alloy particles, which demonstrated that the as-prepared alloys possessed spherical morphologies and tunable compositions. We investigated the effects of the synthesis conditions including reaction temperature, initial Ni2+ concentration, pH value, and surfactant type on the morphologies and chemical constitutes of Ni-P alloy particles. Compared with other microsphere counterparts (ferromagnetism), the spherical Ni-P alloy powders with diameter of about 500 nm exhibited apparent paramagnetism. In addition, the catalytic performance of the products on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) was further investigated via thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). These Ni-P noncrystalline alloy particles with different magnetic properties and good catalytic activities would broaden the technological and industrial applications of Ni-P alloys in petrochemical reaction, soft magnetic devices, and burning rate catalysts.