Taming of tetranitroethane: a promising precursor for high performance energetic ingredients

Abstract

The stabilization of nitrogen-rich or oxygen-rich energetic molecules is an ongoing challenging study in the field of energetic materials. Now we describe the stabilization of tetranitroethane by various transformations to metal complexes, nitrogen rich salts, and ionic complexes with ammonium oxide. These newly prepared energetic compounds are characterized by IR and NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis was used to obtain further structural confirmation of 10, 11, 12, and 14. The safety parameters associated with impact and friction sensitivities were investigated using BAM (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und-prüfung) methods. In addition, detonation performances, e.g., detonation velocity, detonation pressure, and specific impulse, were calculated using the Explo5 program (version 6.01), which gives rise to a significant assessment of the application potential of tetranitroethane derivatives as high performance energetic ingredients.