Trinitromethyl-triazolone (TNMTO): a highly dense oxidizer

Sohan Lal; Richard J Staples; Jean'ne M Shreeve

doi:10.1039/d3dt02232c

Trinitromethyl-triazolone (TNMTO): a highly dense oxidizer

Dalton Trans. 2023 Sep 13;52(35):12341-12346. doi: 10.1039/d3dt02232c.

Authors

Sohan Lal¹, Richard J Staples², Jean'ne M Shreeve¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, 83844-2343, USA. jshreeve@uidaho.edu.
² Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA.

PMID: 37591822
DOI: 10.1039/d3dt02232c

Abstract

A scalable synthesis of 5-(trinitromethyl)-2,4-dihydro-3H-1,2,4-triazol-3-one (TNMTO) is possible from commercially available 2-methylpyrimidine-4,6-diol. It exhibits high density (1.90 g cm^-3) with comparably low thermal stability (T_d = 80 °C) and positive oxygen balance (OB^co = 20.51%, OB^CO₂ = 0.0%). TNMTO has an attractive combination of detonation properties (P = 35.01 GPa, D = 8997 ms^-1) and propulsive properties (I_sp(neat) = 251.85 s, ρI_sp(neat) = 478.52 gs cm^-3, ). These are superior to ammonium dinitroamide (ADN), 2,2,2-tetranitroacetimidic acid (TNAA) and ammonium perchlorate (AP), making it a potential green oxidizer in solid rocket propulsion.