3,5-difluoro-2,4,6-trinitroanisole: promising melt-cast insensitive explosives instead of TNT

Finding new melt-cast explosives with desired properties to replace 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) has been intensely-pursued in recent decades. However, the contradiction among high energy, low mechanical sensitivity and low-melting makes the innovation of insensitive high-energy-density melt-cast explosives an enormous challenge, so the melt-cast explosives of comprehensive properties better than TNT has not been found. Here, we show a new way to design melt-cast insensitive energetic compound by the introduction of C-F into nitroaromatics. This as-synthesized energetic compound exhibits excellent performance with a high-measured density of 1.81 g cm−3, high thermal decomposition temperature (>300°C), high detonation velocity of 8.54 km s−1, appropriate melting point (82°C) and low viscosity(6200 mpa·S), and extremely low mechanical sensitivities (impact sensitivity, >60 J, and friction sensitivity, >360 N), superior to those of current melt-cast explosives, such as TNT and 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN).