Balancing Excellent Performance and High Thermal Stability in a Dinitropyrazole Fused 1,2,3,4-Tetrazine

The key to successfully designing high-performance and insensitive energetic compounds for practical applications is through adjusting the molecular organization including both fuel and oxidizer. Now a superior hydrogen-free 5/6/5 fused ring energetic material, 1,2,9,10-tetranitrodipyrazolo[1,5-d:5',1'-f][1,2,3,4]tetrazine (6) obtained from 4,4',5,5'-tetranitro-2H,2'H-3,3'-bipyrazole (4) by N-amination and N-azo coupling reactions is described. The structures of 5 and 6 were confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction measurements. Compound 6 has a remarkable room temperature experimental density of 1.955 g cm^-3 and shows excellent detonation performance. In addition, it has a high decomposition temperature of 233 °C. These fascinating properties, which are comparable to those of CL-20, make it very attractive in high performance applications.