J. Sci. Conf. Proceedings. 2008, Vol. 1, No. 1 1550-7033/2008/1/007/015 doi:10.1166/jbn.2008.002 7 1. INTRODUCTION Metal oxides are an important class of chemicals having wide-ranging applications in many areas of chemistry, physics and material science. 1–5 In technological applications, metal oxides are used in the fabrication of micro-electronic circuits, sensors, fuel cells, and as catalysts. 6 In the emerging field of nanotechnology, one goal is to make nanostructures with special properties with respect to those of bulk species. 7–11 Metal oxide nanocrystals can exhibit unique physico-chemical properties due to their nano size and high density of cover or edge surface sites. Transition metal oxides (TMOs) have received considerable attention in recent years for their catalytic, electronic and magnetic properties. 12–14 Nano meter-sized metal oxides are expected to possess better properties than those of bulk metal oxides. 15–17 There are many routes for the preparation of transition metal oxide nanocrystals (TMONC). Generally, an appropriate salt of the transition metal is oxidized by chemical or thermal treatments to yield the corresponding metal oxide, and the size of the resultant TMO can be controlled kinetically or thermody- namically (by using templates). In recent years, methods have been developed for the preparation of novel nano structure of metal oxides. They can be generated by a number of preparative methods that typically are described Copyright © 2008 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Journal of Scientific Conference Proceedings Vol. 1, 7–14, 2008 as physical and chemical methods. 18, 19 Conventional methods for the preparation of metal oxide powder include one-step solid state reaction at room temperature, thermal decomposition of metal salts, mechanical milling of commercial powders, and so on. 20–22 However, none of these methods seems to be suitable for the preparation of highly dispersed oxide nanocrystals, which has been found to be an obstacle to many applications, especially in catalysts and electrode. 23, 24 Recently several new approaches have been developed with the aim of obtaining well-dispersed oxide nanocrystals. Nevertheless, few methods reported for preparation of TMONC required large amounts of organic solvents and expensive ultrasonic equipment. 25, 26 Now it becomes nec- essary to adopt a very easy and low cast preparation method of TMONC. Therefore, in the present communi- cation, preparation of metal oxide nanocrystals (CuO, NiO, Co 2 O 3 and MnO 2 ) has been carried out via a novel quick precipitation method. 27 The size of the nanocrystals is controlled in this route by kinetic control, as the name suggests. We have characterized the four TMO using pow- der XRD, TEM and surface area measurements, and the results suggest that TMOs produced are having sizes in the nanometer range. Ammonium perchlorate is the most common oxidizer in composite solid propellants (CSPs). Thermal decomposition characteristics of AP influence the combustion behavior of the propellants. 28 AP based composite solid propellants require combustion modifiers to achieve higher burning rates, Preparation, Characterization and Catalytic Activity of Transition Metal Oxide Nanocrystals Gurdip Singh* ,1 , I. P. S. Kapoor 1 , Shalini Dubey 1 , and Prem Felix Siril 2 1 Chemistry Department, D. D. U. Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur– 273009, India 2 University of Hudderfield, Hudderfield, HD1 3DH, UK Nanocrystals of four transition metal oxides (TMOs) were prepared by a novel quick precipitation method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). From the XRD patterns, average particle sizes for CuO, NiO, Co 2 O 3 , MnO 2 are calculated to be 15 nm, 4 nm, 13 nm, 40 nm, respectively. The TEM study revealed that the majority of CuO particles are of 6–8 nm in size. Catalytic activities of the TMO nanocrystals for thermal decomposition of ammo- nium perchlorate (AP) were investigated using differential thermal analysis (DTA), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and ignition delay measurements. The order of catalytic activity of these oxide nanocrystals on thermal decomposition of AP was found to be: Co 2 O 3 > CuO > NiO > MnO 2 . Keywords: Transition Metal Oxide Nano Crystal (TMONC), Ammonium Perchlorate, Catalytic Activity, Thermal Decomposition. RESEARCH ARTICLE * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.