The azole compounds substituted with nitro groups have a difficulty in that their explosive performance is improved but their nucleophilicity is decreased as electron-withdrawing nitro groups are additionally introduced. For this reason, it remains a ...
The azole compounds substituted with nitro groups have a difficulty in that their explosive performance is improved but their nucleophilicity is decreased as electron-withdrawing nitro groups are additionally introduced. For this reason, it remains a challenging task to synthesize new high-energy materials (HEMs) via alkylation of the nitroazoles. In this thesis, the results of synthetic studies for new nitroazoles based HEMs are presented via their alkylation reactions using selected reagents with high electrophilicity or applying appropriate reaction conditions.
First, the N,N'-methylene bridged coupling reaction of 4-chloro-3,5-dinitro-1H-pyrazole (ClDNP) 1 was studied. ClDNP 1 is known to have a difficulty for coupling reaction due to its reduced nucleophilicity. Bis(4-chloro-3,5-dinitro-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)methane 2 was obtained in a yield of 79% under reaction conditions in which highly electrophilic diiodomethane was used excessively. It is expected that these reaction conditions of using the excess alkylation reagent could be applied to the coupling reaction of the nitroazole-based material having reduced nucleophilicity. Compound 2 is expected to be a useful precursor of new HEMs because it is easy to change its reactive chloro groups with energetic functional groups. In fact, bis(4-azido-3,5-dinitro-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)methane 3 was obtained in 77% yield by substituting the chloro group of 2 with energetic azido group under mild reaction condition. Compound 3 is expected to be used as a new green primary explosive candidate as it has better thermal stability and explosive performance than DDNP (2-diazo-4,6-dinitrophenol), a widely used military primary explosive.
Second, the synthesis of 4,5-dinitro-N,N'-dialkylimidazolium cations was studied by quaternizing 4,5-dinitroimidazoles via alkylation reactions. In the research field of energetic ionic liquids (EILs), dinitroimidazoles have been reported to be unable to be quaternized due to the electron-withdrawing effect nitro groups substituted on them. In order to achieve this challenging task, it was necessary to select a more reactive alkylating reagent than methyl triflate. This challenge was overcome by using Meerwien’s reagents (R3OBF4) as more reactive alkylating reagents. As a result of quaternization reaction of 4,5-dinitro-1H-imidazole 4 and 1-methyl-4,5-dinitro-1H-imidazole 5 using triethyloxonium tetrafluoroborate (Et3O+BF4-), 1,3-diethyl-4,5-dinitro-1H-imidazol-3-ium tetrafluoroborate ([1,3-diEt-4,5-diNO2-Im][BF4]) 6 and 3-ethyl-1-methyl-4,5-dinitro-1H-imidazol-3-ium tetrafluoroborate ([3-Et-1-Me-4,5-diNO2-Im][BF4]) 7 were obtained. Newly obtained compounds 6 and 7 are expected to be used as precursors for new HEMs via metathesis reaction with energetic anions. In fact, two new HEMs candidates, 1,3-diethyl-4,5-dinitro-1H-imidazol-3-ium 2,4,5-trinitroimidazol-1-ide ([1,3-diEt-4,5-diNO2-Im][2,4,5-triNO2-Im]) 8, 3-ethyl-1-methyl-4,5-dinitro-1H-imidazol-3-ium 2,4,5-trinitroimidazol-1-ide ([3-Et-1-Me-4,5-diNO2-Im][2,4,5-triNO2-Im]) 9 were also obtained via anion metathesis reaction with energetic 2,4,5-trinitroimidazolate anion. Compound 9 showed the promising properties as a new insensitive HEM because of its excellent insensitivity and more powerful explosive performance than those of TNT (2,4,6-trinitrotoluene).