Rheological non-isothermal mechanistic investigation on the curing of glycidyl azide polymer with solid nanofillers

The effects of ammonium perchlorate (AP) and graphene oxide (GO) on the curing of glycidyl azide polymer (GAP) were investigated. The rheological parameters of GAP crosslinked by bispropargyl succinate (BPS) were investigated by rheometry instrument. The curing kinetics by the differential isoconversional method revealed that AP (1 wt%) increased the apparent activation energy from 72.98 to 76.41 kJ mol⁻¹. However, the presence of GO (0.1 wt%) catalyzed the curing of GAP/triazole by decreasing the apparent activation energy to 62.86 kJ mol⁻¹. The physical models revealed that the addition of GO changed the cure mechanism of GAP/BPS as it acted as new nucleation sites. The Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) results also showed that chemical groups on the surface of GO reacted with the hydroxyl groups of GAP, which changed the curing mechanism of GAP/BPS and improved the tension strength of the propellant by 104%.