Biochar-Based Single-Atom Cobalt Catalyst for Efficient Thermal Decomposition of Ammonium Perchlorate: Preparation, Performance and Mechanism

The thermal decomposition performance of ammonium perchlorate (AP) is a key factor in regulating the combustion of composite solid propellants, and its catalytic decomposition process is considered a typical multiphase catalytic process. The exposure of catalytic centers during multiphase catalysis is a key factor affecting catalytic performance. In response to the problem of low atomic utilization efficiency of traditional metal oxide catalysts, this study successfully prepared nitrogen-doped carbon-supported single-atom cobalt catalyst (SACo-PC-X) using the “zinc volatilization pore formation and nitrogen anchoring” method with inexpensive biomass as the precursor. Aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy, together with XPS and XRD analyses, suggests that Co species are predominantly stabilized in an atomically dispersed Co-Nx configuration. This catalyst exhibits excellent catalytic performance for the thermal decomposition of AP, significantly reducing its high-temperature decomposition temperature from 433.5 °C to 322.7 °C (The cobalt content in the system is less than 0.2%). Gas studies have shown that Co-Nx sites efficiently accelerate the oxidation process of NH3 by promoting electron transfer, resulting in a significant increase in the proportion of N2O gas. This work not only provides an efficient and stable new catalyst for AP decomposition, but also offers new ideas for designing energetic material decomposition catalysts at the atomic level.