Searching for a new family of high energy explosives by introducing N atoms, N-oxides, and NO2 into a cage adamantane

Abstract

A design strategy that including N atoms, N-oxides, and nitro groups into a cage azaadamantane at the same time was used to design 10 polyazaoxyadamantanes (PAOAs) and eight polynitroazaoxyadamantanes (PNTAOAs). First, four stable azaadamantanes were built by replacing the tertiary C atoms of an adamantane with N atoms. Then, 10 PAOAs were designed by introducing one to four N-oxides into the four azaadamantanes. After that, eight PNTAOAs were formed when the H atoms of four N-oxide-substituted azaadamantanes were replaced with different numbers of nitro groups. Finally, their heats of formation, densities, detonation properties, and impact sensitivity were estimated by using density functional theory. Among the eight PNTAOAs, seven compounds had better detonation performances than CL-20, the outstanding, novel, high-energy, and relatively insensitive cage explosive. Two compounds had higher detonation performance and lower sensitivity than CL-20 and HMX, suggesting that their overall performances are outstanding and they may be considered as the potential candidate of high-energy explosives.