Preparation and evaluation of effective thermal decomposition of tetraamminecopper (II) nitrate carried by graphene oxide

Graphene oxide (GO) was investigated in this paper as a promising catalyst for the effective thermal decomposition of tetraamminecopper (II) nitrate coordination complexes. CuC has been synthesized by doping GO nanoparticles in a one-step method and it demonstrates a uniform deposition of the produced nanocomposites onto the surface of the complex. The kinetics of decomposition and underlying mechanisms of GO on CuC have been studied using a Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) technique and Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) coupled Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) technique and relevant theories. Under the effect of GO, the release of heat from the decomposition process is significantly increased from 97.1 J·g^-1 to 69.2 J·g^-1. Under the effect of GO, the activation energy of the CuC decreased from 94.3 to 82.2 ± 0.5 kJ·mol⁻¹ (for endothermic reaction). The significance of this discovery is due to the reactive sites and great thermal conductivity of the GO. By FTIR analysis, GO affected by the formation of NH₃ and N₂O; and the decomposition of CuC complex in cooperation with the GO may follow a random scission model (A2) since it highly depends on the edge defects of GO as well as coordination center reactive sites (scission sites). In addition, the combustion behavior of CuC and CuC–GO in the physical mixture with B/KNO₃ has been investigated. The results show that the pressure exponent “n” samples (CuC: n = 0.621 vs. CuC–GO: n = 0.703) can be stable and investigated composites are available for successful application as energetic materials.