Recent advances in energetic molecule synthesis

The latest advances focusing on synthesis of new energetic molecules in past two years have been reviewed from different viewing angle including molecule design, synthetic strategy, reaction pathway optimization, and performance evaluation, etc. This review sorts out the research and development trend in synthesis area of energetic materials (e.g., energetic salts and neutral energetic molecules), and points out promising research directions, including (1) typical strategies including C- or N-nitroamine, N-OH, and gem-dinitro functionalizations will be the most efficient way to synthesize nitrogen-rich energetic salts with desired energy level and sensitivity; (2) more attention should be paid to design and synthesis of high-nitrogen explosive molecules with fused ring, conjugated π structure and bridged frameworks; (3) researches on boron-based explosives have been undervalued and may become the research frontier in the near future; (4) synthetic technologies under extreme conditions such as cryogenic synthesis and supercritical synthesis should be applied to the fields of new energetic materials with improved properties.