Challenging the Limitations of Tetranitro Biimidazole through Introducing a gem -Dinitromethyl Scaffold.

A gem -dinitromethyl group was successfully introduced into the TNBI·2H 2 O structure (TNBI: 4,4',5,5'-tetranitro-2,2'-bi-1 H -imidazole) to obtain 1-(dinitromethyl)-4,4',5,5'-tetranitro-1 H ,1' H -2,2'-biimidazole ( DNM-TNBI ). Benefiting from the transformation of an N-H proton into a gem -dinitromethyl group, the current limitations of TNBI were well solved. More importantly, DNM-TNBI has high density (1.92 g·cm -3 , 298 K), good oxygen balance (15.3%), and excellent detonation properties ( D v = 9102 m·s -1 , P = 37.6 GPa), suggesting that it has great potential as an oxidizer or a high-performance energetic material.