Elevating the energetic capabilities of metal coordination compounds by incorporating nitrate anions

Abstract

In the realm of energetic materials research, there has been notable interest in energetic coordination compounds (ECCs) owing to their remarkable thermal stability and resistance to mechanical stimuli. This study successfully demonstrated the synthesis of an azole-based C–C bonded ECC1 under ambient conditions. A comprehensive characterization study, employing techniques such as IR, TGA-DSC, NMR and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, was conducted. The bulk compound was investigated by PXRD analysis. In-depth exploration of its physicochemical and energetic performance revealed good detonation properties such as a detonation velocity (VOD) of 8553 m s⁻¹ and a detonation pressure (DP) of 36.2 GPa, which surpass those of heat resistant explosives HNS and TATB. Due to its remarkable high melting and onset decomposition temperature (278/379 °C), it also outperforms the benchmark explosive HMX (279 °C) and the heat-resistant explosive HNS (318 °C) and shows a high impact sensitivity (IS) of 20 J and friction sensitivity (FS) of 360 N. The study also employed Hirshfeld surface and 2D fingerprint analysis to elucidate the close contact of atoms within the molecules. The combination of high detonation properties, thermal stability, and low sensitivity makes the synthesized ECC1 intriguing for further investigations and suggests its potential applications as a safe and high-energy-dense material.