A New Energetic Salt Semicarbazide 5-Dinitromethyltetrazolate: A Promising Explosive Alternative

The design and synthesis of new environmentally friendly energetic materials with excellent performance and reliable safety have received considerable attention. A new energetic salt of semicarbazide 5-dinitromethyltetrazolate (SCZ⋅DNMZ) was synthesized by using semicarbazide and 5-dinitromethyltetrazolate (DNMZ) as raw materials, and fully characterized by using elemental analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy, ¹H, ¹³C, and ¹⁵N nmR and mass spectrometry. The monocrystal of the salt was obtained and the structure was determined by X-ray single-crystal diffractometer. Results show that it belongs to monoclinic space group P2₁/c with a high density of 1.867 g cm⁻³. The thermal decomposition behavior was tested by DSC and TG-DTG technologies; the non-isothermal kinetic parameters for the salt were calculated. The enthalpy of formation for the salt is directly dependent on the combustion heats data with a result of 341.5 kJ mol⁻¹, which is about three times higher than that of RDX. The detonation pressure (P) and detonation velocitiy (D) of the salt were determined as 8931 m s⁻¹ and 36.2 GPa, which are also higher than that of RDX. The impact sensitivity was tested with a result of 10.8 J. We can draw a safe conclusion that the salt has provided a promising future by using as a kind of explosive alternative. The discovery also contributes significantly to the expansion and application of the N-heterocyclic compounds applied as energetic materials.