Effect of drying methods on catalytic performance of nano-sized copper β -resorcylate

Copper β- resorcylate (cupric 2,4-dihydroxy-benzoate, β -Cu) nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized via a facile wet mechanical grinding and dried by vacuum drying and vacuum freeze-drying techniques. The crystal forms were characterized by X-ray diffraction, and the particle sizes were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. At the same time, the catalytic performances of the as-prepared β -Cu nanoparticles on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) were studied through thermogravimetric analysis/differential scanning calorimetric techniques. The results revealed that nano-sized β -Cu obtained by vacuum drying displays a strong tendency to agglomeration, and conversely nano-sized β -Cu obtained by vacuum freeze-drying shows a semi-spherical morphology and good dispersion with a fairly uniform size of 100 nm. The formation mechanism of drying process of β -Cu nanoparticles was discussed in detail. In addition, the TG/DSC study showed that the nano-sized β -Cu prepared by vacuum freeze-drying could be explored to be a promising additive for accelerating the thermal decomposition of AP.