Since the demands for the thermostability of energetic materials have risen in the deep mining and aerospace industries, the research on heat-resistant explosives with remarkable thermal stability as well as high energy has always been a tough challenge. Here we present the synthesis and properties of an advanced heat-resistant explosive 5,5′-bis(3,5-dinitro-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-1H,1′H-3,3′-bi(1,2,4-triazole) (BDBT-2). This compound exhibits a striking thermal decomposition temperature of 372 °C, a high detonation velocity of 8705 m s⁻¹, desirable sensitivity properties, and is easy to scale-up. These impressive properties and energetic performance of BDBT-2 surpass those of the current and industrially used heat-resistant explosive 2,2′,4,4′,6,6′-hexanitrostilbene (HNS) and the recently reported thermostable explosives, strongly supporting BDBT-2 as a candidate for advanced heat-resistant explosives. Moreover, a comprehensive comparison between regioisomers 5,5′-bis(3,4-dinitro-1H-pyrazol-5-yl)-2H,2′H-3,3′-bi(1,2,4-triazole) (BDBT-1) and BDBT-2 suggests that regiochemical modulation will have broad prospects in the development of advanced heat-resistant explosives.

The synthesis of four neutral 4-nitro-5-(1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)-2H-1,2,3-triazole compounds in combination with different energetic moieties like amino, nitrimino, nitro, and azo groups is presented. Furthermore, a novel family of energetic salts based on the 4-nitro-5-(5-R-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)-2H-1,2,3-triazole (2: R = nitrimino; 3: R = nitro) monoanion and dianion were controllably synthesized. All new compounds were fully characterized by IR and multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis and DSC measurements. The molecular structures of 2, 3, 8 and 17 were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. In addition, the heats of formation and detonation performance of all the energetic compounds were calculated using Gaussian 09 and EXPLO5 v6.01 programs, respectively. Both experimental and theoretical evaluations show promising properties for these energetic compounds, such as high density, positive heats of formation, high thermal stabilities, good sensitivities and excellent detonation performances. Among them, 6, 7, 14 to 16, 24 and 25 exhibit favorable overall properties as energetic materials.