Novel energetic materials from new polyazide ingredients

Polynitrogen and high-nitrogen compounds hold great potential for High Energy Density Materials (HEDM). Particular advantages of these compounds are their high energy content, environmentally more benign combustion products, low plume signatures, low smoke, low gun barrel corrosion, and potential for oxidizer and fuel compatible gas generators. During the past decade, much progress was made in the synthesis of novel polyazides, however these compounds were not evaluated systematically for potential applications. The goals of this proposal are the summarization of our unpublished results in polyazide chemistry in manuscript form, the systematic evaluation, including sensitivity and stability data, of the known polyazides, the identification of potential candidates for applications, such as primary explosives, and the synthesis and characterization of missing links in this field. A second area of interest involves high nitrogen heterocycles. Generally, these compounds have high nitrogen content, very favorable heats of formation, good densities and high stability, but suffer from bad oxygen balances. We would carry out systematic studies to improve their oxygen balances either by combination with high-oxygen carrying anions, which are being developed by us under an ongoing AFOSR STTR Program, or by the introduction of oxidizing groups into heterocyclic cations.