Porous Cu₂O hierarchical structure for promoting the decomposition of ammonium perchlorate and its combustion properties

The development of porous catalytic materials with high specific surface area and controllable active sites remains a key challenge in multiphase catalysis. In this study, we propose a methodology for the synthesis of inverse opal structured Cu₂O, whereby the uniform size and thermal responsiveness of PS spheres are exploited. The removal of the template resulted in the formation of ordered macropores with a hierarchical structure, thereby providing a high specific surface area (70 m²/g), gas transport channels, and high accessibility of active sites. This approach addresses the limitations of conventional catalysts, such as diffusion resistance and low active site utilization. Porous Cu₂O exhibits remarkable catalytic activity, evidenced by its accelerated decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) in a non-homogeneous reaction environment. The results of gas products indicate that higher selectivity for N₂ and N₂O is attributable to the hierarchical structure, which correlates with the surface adsorption and conversion of NH₃ and HClO₄ by Cu₂O. This work demonstrates that the optimized structure of porous Cu₂O can deepen the understanding of the structure–property relationship of porous materials and provides ideas for the design of catalysts in non-homogeneous reactions.