A New Breakthrough in Electrochemical Synthesis of Energetic Materials: Constructing Super Heat-Resistant Explosives

Abstract

In this work, we constructed a novel heat-resistant energetic material with four ring long chain structure bridged by azo bis (1,2,4-triazole) using electrochemical synthesis method. In terms of structure, the synthesized 1,2-bis(5-(1H-tetrazol-5-yl)-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)-diazene (H4AzTT) exhibits zwitterionic properties and can be obtained in the form of a rare tetravalent structure when used as a nitrogen rich anion. Due to the high nitrogen content in the molecule and the large conjugated system formed by azo bonds, H4AzTT and its energetic salts (M-AzTT) exhibit excellent thermal stability and energy performance. Among them, K4-AzTT·3H2O possess the highest decomposition of 428 ℃. Specifically, the traditional chemical synthesis of four ring long chains may result in ring breakage or by-product generation, while the electrochemical synthesis method is efficient and controllable, and allows for the direct synthesis of energetic salt (potassium, lithium, sodium, guanidine) by simply changing the electrolyte. Electrochemical testing and in situ ATR-SEIRAS analysis showed that the electro synthesis of M-AzTT occurred earlier than OER. Therefore, under alkaline conditions, the 65% high yield and 81.5% high Faraday efficiency were achieved at 1.7 V vs. RHE. In summary, this study not only constructs super heat-resistant energetic compounds, but also represents a new breakthrough in electrochemistry in the field of energetic materials.

Keywords: Heat-resistant energetic materials, Azo-bis(1, 2, 4-triazole) bridge, Electrochemical synthesis, Oxidative coupling