Imidazole-Based Energetic Materials: A Promising Family of N-Heterocyclic Framework

High-Energetic Salts and Metal Complexes: Comprehensive Overview with a Focus on Use in Homemade Explosives (HME)

Metal-containing compounds form a large and rapidly expanding group of high-energy materials. Many compounds in this class attract the attention of non-professionals, who may attempt the illegal production of explosives. Several of these substances have been commercially available and pose significant danger if used by terrorists or for criminal purposes. Others are experimental compounds, kinds of curiosities, often created by pyrotechnics enthusiasts, which can present serious risks to both the creators and their immediate surroundings. The internet hosts a vast amount of information, including recipes and discussions on forums, private websites, social media, and more. This paper aims to review the variety of metal-containing explosives and discuss their appeal and potential accessibility to unauthorized individuals.

Oxidative Transformation of 2-Furylanilines into Indolin-3-ones

Oxidation of 2-furylaninlies with m-CPBA followed by treatment with a base provides access to functionalized indolin-3-ones. The designed oxidative transformation utilizes an underassessed chemical behavior of furyl-containing amines to form a C-N bond via engaging a β-carbon atom of the furan core upon a ring-forming step, thereby providing an alternative disconnection toward nitrogen-containing heterocycles.

Highly energetic N-cyano-substituted CL-20 analogues: challenging the stability limits of polynitro hexaazaisowurtzitanes

To design high-energy-density materials of a new level, it is necessary to develop methods for the functionalization of energetic scaffolds, which will make it possible to tune their physicochemical and energetic properties. For this reason, we have elaborated an approach for synthesizing a new series of energetic cage compounds with advanced properties by introducing the N-cyano group into the polynitro hexaazaisowurtzitane framework. The structures of the obtained substances were fully characterized with a combination of methods, including multinuclear (1H, 13C{1H}, 14N, and 15N{1H}) NMR and IR spectroscopy, high-resolution mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction analysis, electron microscopy and quantum chemical calculations. For the resulting compounds, thermal stability and safety tests were carried out, calorimetric and pycnometric measurements were performed, and the energetic potential was determined by high-temperature chemical equilibrium thermodynamic calculations. The new cyano derivatives have an acceptable density (up to 1.92 g cm-3) and a high enthalpy of formation (up to 2 MJ kg-1), which is 2 times that of the benchmark CL-20. The resistance of the target compounds to friction (up to 220 N) is the highest compared to CL-20 and its known analogues. 4,10-Dicyano-2,6,8,12-tetranitro-2,4,6,8,10,12-hexaazaisowurtzitane of the new series is the most thermally stable (a Tdec of 238 °C) among the known energetic polynitro hexaazaisowurtzitanes and is the first derivative of this family to surpass CL-20 in heat resistance. Moreover, the specific impulse for the novel materials showed an improvement of 6.5-13 s over CL-20.