C8N12O10: a promising energetic compound with excellent detonation performance and desirable sensitivity

Among energetic materials, there is a significant challenge faced by researchers to seek an optimal balance between high performance and safety. By combination of furoxan and 1,2,4-oxadiazole backbones and C–NO2 moieties, a promising energetic molecule, bis(4-nitro-1,2,5-oxadiazole-2-oxid-3-yl)-azo-1,2,4-oxadiazole (6), was prepared and characterized by IR, multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, DSC measurements and single crystal X-ray diffraction. It has a high density (1.92 g cm−3), an acceptable thermal stability (182 °C) and a high heat of formation (1188.8 kJ mol−1/2.8 kJ g−1). The calculated detonation performance (D = 9666 m s−1 and P = 42.8 GPa) is comparable to that of CL-20 (9706 m s−1 and 45.2 GPa). More importantly, it shows desirable impact and friction sensitivity (IS: 12 J and FS: 180 N), which is less sensitive than HMX (IS: 7.4 J and FS: 120 N). Furthermore, a detonation test of compound 6 was conducted. The results indicate that compound 6 is more powerful than the commonly used secondary explosive RDX (D = 8795 m s−1 and P = 34.9 GPa). The combination of advanced performances and desirable safety makes this substance a potential secondary explosive.