Lanthanide-nitrogen-rich supramolecular complexes (La Ce Pr): Synthesis, structure, and catalysis for ammonium perchlorate

Highlights: • Three new complexes of lanthanum rich metals were synthesized. • The complex has good thermal stability. • The catalytic effect of metal complexes on AP thermal decomposition was studied. Three novel lanthanide-nitrogen-rich supramolecular complexes with similar structures and performance, namely, [La(BTF)₂(H₂O)₅]_n, [Ce(BTF)₂(H₂O)₅]_n and [Pr(BTF)₂(H₂O)₅]_n, were synthesized via the hydrothermal method. The crystal structures of these complexes were determined via single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and results show that abundant hydrogen bonds provide good thermal stability for the metal complexes (T_dec>550K). The catalytic effect of complexes on ammonium perchlorate (AP) was examined via differential thermal analysis (DTA), which results validate the outstanding catalytic effect of these complexes on AP. After adding 10wt% complexes, the high-temperature decomposition (HTD) peak of AP can be increased by 90Kat most, and the activation energy is reduced by approximately 70kJmol ^-1 to 150kJmol ^-1. Other properties are fully characterized via elemental analysis and FT-IR spectroscopy.