In this work, the influences of the particle size and agglomeration of copper oxide on the thermal behavior of Mg/CuO systems were verified. In the next step, the dependencies of activation energy on extent of conversion (alpha) for ignition reaction of Mg/CuO systems, obtained using Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) isoconversional method. According to DSC data, the ignition temperature and heat of reaction of the physically-mixed mu m-Mg/180nm CuO were 647.4 degrees C and 2103.9 Jg(-1), respectively. It was found that the replacement of 180 nm CuO with 50 nm CuO as oxidizer increases the energy output and decreases the ignition temperature and activation energy of Mg/CuO system. The results also revealed that the agglomeration of CuO nanoparticles decreases the heat of reaction and increases activation energy of Mg/CuO mixture in the conversion range of 0.1 <= alpha <= 0.5. Moreover, it was observed that melting of magnesium changes the activation energy of Mg/CuO mixture at end of the reaction. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.