High-performing, insensitive and thermally stable energetic materials from zwitterionic gem -dinitromethyl substituted C-C bonded 1,2,4-triazole and 1,3,4-oxadiazole.

A series of gem -dinitromethyl substituted zwitterionic C-C bonded azole based energetic materials (3-8) were designed, synthesized, and characterized through NMR, IR, EA, and DSC studies. Further, the structure of 5 was confirmed with SCXRD and those of 6 and 8 with 15 N NMR. All the newly synthesized energetic molecules exhibited higher density, good thermal stability, excellent detonation performance, and low mechanical sensitivity to external stimuli such as impact and friction. Among all, compounds 6 and 7 may serve as ideal secondary high energy density materials due to their remarkable thermal decomposition (200 °C and 186 °C), insensitivity to impact (>30 J), velocity of detonation (9248 m s -1 and 8861 m s -1 ) and pressure (32.7 GPa and 32.1 GPa). Additionally, the melting and decomposition temperatures of 3 ( T m = 92 °C, T d = 242 °C) indicate that it can be used as a melt-cast explosive. The novelty, synthetic feasibility, and energetic performance of all the molecules suggest that they can be used as potential secondary explosives in defence and civilian fields.