An effective strategy for balancing energy and sensitivity: design, synthesis, and properties of chimeric energetic molecules

Abstract

Designing and synthesizing high-energy, low-sensitivity energetic molecules has become an urgent challenge in the field of energetic materials. Here, the concept of chimerism was introduced into the development of energetic molecules, proposing a systematic and effective research model for the design, screening, and synthesis of high-energy, low-sensitivity energetic molecules. We selected the classical insensitive energetic molecule nitroguanidine as the parent molecule and merged it with three other classic energetic molecules through a one-step substitution reaction, efficiently obtaining three classes of new energetic molecules. Analysis and characterization of their properties show that the chimeric molecules 3 and 6 inherit the advantages of the parent energetic molecules, demonstrating high-energy and insensitivity (detonation velocity of 8113 m s⁻¹ and an impact sensitivity of 35 J for 3; a detonation velocity of 8539 m s⁻¹ and an impact sensitivity of >60 J for 6). Remarkably, chimeric molecule 9 exhibits an acceptable sensitivity (7 J, similar to RDX) while surpassing the energy of the parent molecules significantly (>9000 m s⁻¹). The energy of energetic molecule 8 (8742 m s⁻¹) is comparable to that of RDX (8754 m s⁻¹), and its mechanical sensitivity (50 J) is less sensitive than that of RDX (5.6 J). This study demonstrates the potential of the chimeric energetic molecule strategy for efficiently designing and synthesizing new high-performance energetic molecules in a simple manner.