All-Nitrogen or High-Nitrogen Compounds as High Energy Density Materials

All-nitrogen compounds, also known as polynitrogen compounds, or nitrogen-rich compounds, such as polyazides, store large amounts of energy that can be released when these materials decompose to molecular nitrogen. The synthesis of these materials is very challenging because the reactants, intermediates, and desired products have high endothermicities. These high endothermicities make many of these compounds shock sensitive and extremely difficult to handle. The goal of exploiting the potential of polynitrogen compounds for HEDM applications requires research to identify new target molecules that possess sufficient energy and kinetic stability to warrant attempts at their synthesis, to develop new methodology for their preparation, and to prepare amounts sufficient for the determination of their structures and properties.