Intermolecular Weak Hydrogen Bonding (Het-H-N/O): an Effective Strategy for the Synthesis of Monosubstituted 1,2,4,5-Tetrazine-Based Energetic Materials with Excellent Sensitivity

A series of monosubstituted 1,2,4,5-tetrazine-based energetic materials was effectively synthesized and fully characterized with IR, multinuclear nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and elemental analyses. Heats of formation and detonation performances were determined using Gaussian 03 and EXPLO5 v6.01 programs, which show that 5 and 9 as secondary explosives have detonation velocities superior to the current secondary-explosive benchmark, triaminotrinitrobenzene (TATB). Importantly, compounds 2, 5, and 9 were first characterized with single-crystal X-ray diffraction and Hirshfeld surface calculations, and some intermolecular weak hydrogen bonds (Het-H-N/O) among these compounds illustrate the relationship between these weak interactions and excellent sensitivity of energetic materials. This design method for next-generation energetic materials by incorporating intermolecular weak hydrogen bonds may be of future importance.