Assessment of Nanocatalyst Dispersibility in a Polymer by Employing Relative Standard Deviation

Abstract

A relative standard deviation (RSD) method has been developed to evaluate the nanocatalyst dispersibility in an energetic polymer. The dispersibility of nanocatalyst and thermal characteristics of the polymer exhibits high dependence on the RSD of the concentration distributions of nanocatalyst. The improvement of the dispersibility of nanocatalyst, which is dependent on kneading time, can be presented by a decrease in the RSD of the concentration distributions. Moreover, the decomposition temperature and the combustion heat of the polymer is reduced gradually and enhanced distinctly, respectively, with the decrease of the RSD of the nanocatalyst distributions. However, over-kneading may lead to a reunion of nanocatalyst and a decline of thermal characteristics of the energetic polymer, and presented with an increasing of the RSD of the concentrations of nanocatalyst. The optimal kneading time is 3 h and an acceptable value of the RSD is approximately 1% of the concentration distributions of nanocatalyst for the energetic polymer with nanometer copper oxide catalyst.