Shape-controlled synthesis of Co3O4 nanostructures derived from coordination polymer precursors and their application to the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate

In this paper, we report a facile approach for the shape-controlled synthesis of cobalt(II)-based coordination polymer particles. Three different structures of flower-like architectures, multilayer stacked structures and nanosheets have been synthesized by varying the volume ratio of ethanol and water. Phase-pure Co3O4 nanocrystals have been obtained by annealing the coordination polymer particles without significant alterations in morphology. The products have been characterized by X-ray diffraction techniques, field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM). The catalytic effect was investigated for the Co3O4 nanocrystals with different morphology on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) and it was found that the Co3O4 nanosheet has the highest catalytic activity. The surface areas of Co3O4 nanocrystals are measured by the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) technique and the results show that the catalytic activity of Co3O4 nanocrystals for the thermal decomposition of AP increases with the increase of BET surface area and pore volume.