Boosting Laser-Ignited Combustion Performance of Energetic Materials with Low Sensitivity: Integration of Triazene-Bridged Triazole with Oxygen-Rich Moieties via Noncovalent Self-Assembly

It has long been a driving force in the development of energetic materials to hunt for novel high-energy density materials (HEDMs) with high energy and good stability. Recently, the noncovalent self-assembly strategy of energetic anions and cations to generate HEDMs is an effective strategy for introducing an oxidizer and fuel separately into the energy system. In this study, bis(1,2,4-triazolyl)triazene containing triazene (−N═N═NH−) and oxidant molecules (i.e., HNO3 and HClO4) were selected as high-energy ions to develop new high energy materials by using noncovalent self-assembly. The experimental results showed that three exemplary compounds possess excellent detonation pressure and detonation velocity (PC–J: 22.8–29.3 GPa and D: 7425–8135 m s–1), which are comparable to the classical explosive trinitrotoluene (TNT) (PC–J: 19.5 GPa and D: 6881 m s–1) as well as 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazacyclohexane (RDX) (PC–J: 34.9 GPa and D: 8795 m s–1). Moreover, 1 and 3 exhibit low mechanical sensitivities (IS: 40 J and IS: 70 J). Thus, 1 and 3 have great potential as insensitive energetic materials. Especially, these energetic assemblies have excellent laser-ignited combustion properties and can be used as candidates for low sensitivity propellants.