What are the prospects for energetic materials bearing the 1,3-dinitro-1,3-diazabutyl group: A breakthrough or an impasse?

The synthesis of novel energetic compounds for the development of propellants and powders with significantly improved characteristics is an important and complex task. The combination of little- studied hydrogen-containing explosophoric groups and high nitrogen heterocycles is a powerful strategy for creating the compounds needed to address this challenge. A number of energetic substituted furazans, bearing a rare 1,3-dinitro-1,3-diazabutyl group, were synthesized and their properties were thoroughly studied. The resulting (1,3-dinitro-1,3-diazabutyl)furazans 1b – f have good thermal stability (onset decomposition temperatures 124–160°C), high experimental enthalpies of formation (947–1528 kJ⋅kg −1 ) and acceptable densities (1.60–1.70 g⋅cm −3 ). In terms of detonation performance, all synthesized compounds (detonation velocities D = 8.0–8.3 km⋅s −1 , detonation pressures P C–J = 27–30 GPa) are comparable with pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) (D = 8.3 km⋅s −1 , P C–J = 31 GPa). For novel compounds "structure-property" relationships have been revealed that will allow predicting the key energetic characteristics of hypothetical compounds containing 1,3-dinitro-1,3-diazabutyl explosophoric group.