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

This paper reports a facile two-step hydrothermal method for the fabrication of f-ZnO@Fe2O3 nanostructures. Various characterization results show that the hierarchical nanocomposites are formed by the loading of well-crystallized α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles onto the flower-like ZnO. The nanostructures exhibit large specific surface area and narrow mesoporous size distribution. Morphological measurements indicate that Fe2O3 nanoparticles are densely and uniformly attached onto the entire surface of the f-ZnO. The catalytic performance of the f-ZnO@Fe2O3 on the thermal decomposition of AP is measured by TG and DTA methods. The results demonstrate that the f-ZnO@Fe2O3 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-Fe2O3 nanoparticles.