Composite solid propellants are the major source of chemical energy in space vehicles and missiles. Composite propellants are composed of crystalline oxidizer particles dispersed in polymeric fuel binder. Ammonium perchlorate (AP) is used as the most common oxidizer and hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) as the fuel binder. The ballistics of a composite propellant can be improved by adding a catalyst such as, nanosized metals, metal oxides, alloys, spinels and etc, which accelerates the rate of decomposition of AP. This review represents an attempt to summarize literature data on thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate, the mechanism of thermal decomposition and various factors which influence on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate. Also in this study, an attempt to collect summarized literature data on catalytic effect of nanosized spinels compound on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorates (AP) is made. However, our literature survey was shown that spinels nanoparticles of transition metal oxides, can be remarkably affect the kinetics of decomposition of ammonium perchlorate and increase the burning rate of composite solid propellants

Keywords: Ammonium Perchlorate, Thermal decomposition, nano-catalysis, Spinel

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