Room temperature solution-phase synthesis of flower-like nanostructures of [Ni3(BTC)2·12H2O] and their conversion to porous NiO

Hierarchical flower-like architectures of [Ni3(BTC)2·12H2O] (BTC3- = benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate) were successfully prepared by a simple solution-phase method under mild conditions without any template or surfactant. Phase-pure porous NiO nanocrystals were obtained by annealing the Ni-BTC complex without significant alteration in morphology. The product was characterized by X-ray diffraction techniques, field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM). The catalytic effect of the NiO product was investigated on the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate (AP) and it was found that the annealed NiO product has higher catalytic activity than the commercial NiO.