New promising high-energy compounds have been synthesized at the Zelinsky Institute

Energy materials are an important class of functional chemicals used in the military, space, and mining industries. Explosives currently in use do not meet today's strict safety and toxicity requirements, which justifies the constant need for new high-density energy-intensive materials. In recent decades, heterocyclic frameworks have attracted attention as promising high-energy compounds. Of particular interest are derivatives of 1,2,5-oxadiazole-2-oxide (furoxan) due to the high positive enthalpy of formation and the huge content of nitrogen and oxygen in the core.

Researchers from the Laboratory of Nitrogen-Containing Compounds of the ZIOC have synthesized new hybrid energy materials based on furoxan, 3,3-dinitroazetidine, and a trinitroethyl fragment. The resulting structures have a positive oxygen balance to CO, excellent detonation characteristics, and moderate impact and friction sensitivity. These indicators allow them to be used as booster explosives or oxidizers. Geometric analysis of the crystal packing of the synthesized energy materials indicates that the NO2 substituents at azetidine form a number of short intermolecular and multiple strong O⋯O interactions between NO2 groups. An analysis of the obtained results showed that the anisotropy and strength of the crystal packing, together with the presence of intramolecular secondary interactions, serve as a good explanation for the impact sensitivity of the synthesized structures. These data can be used in the future to obtain high-energy materials with balanced properties.

Source:

Egor S. Zhilin, Ivan V. Ananyev, Alla N. Pivkina, Leonid L. Fershtat Renaissance of dinitroazetidine: novel hybrid energetic boosters and oxidizers // Dalton Trans., 2022, 51, 14088-14096. DOI: 10.1039/d2dt02445d.