An Efficient One-Step Reaction for the Preparation of Advanced Fused Bistetrazole-Based Primary Explosives

Abstract

The first example of [5,6,5]-tricyclic bistetrazole-fused energetic materials has been obtained through a one-step reaction from commercial and inexpensive 4,6-dichloro-5-nitropyrimidine. This one-step reaction including nucleophilic substitution, nucleophilic addition, cyclization, and electron transfer is rarely reported, and the reaction mechanism and scope is well investigated. Among target compounds, organic salts exhibit higher detonation velocities (D: 8898-9077 m s-1) and lower sensitivities (IS: 16-20 J) than traditional high energy explosive RDX (D = 8795 m s-1; IS = 7.5 J). In addition, the potassium salt of 5-azido-10-nitro-bis(tetrazolo)[1,5-c:5′,1′-f]pyrimidin (DTAT-K) possesses excellent priming ability, comparable to traditional primary explosive Pb(N3)2, and ultralow minimum primary charge (MPC = 10 mg), which is the lowest MPC among the reported potassium-based primary explosives. The simple synthesis route, free of heavy metal and expensive raw materials, makes it promising to quickly realize this material in large-scale industrial production as a green primary explosive. This work accelerates the upgrade of green primary explosives and enriches future prospects for the design of energetic materials.