Reactive energetic plasticizers (REPs) for use in glycidyl azido polymer (GAP) based polyurethane (PU) energetic binders were investigated. These REPs consisted of an activated terminal alkyne group that was expected to give rise to Huisgen azide‐alkyne 1,3‐dipolar cycloaddition within the specific pot life for a PU formulation to prevent the migration of plasticizers, and with a gem‐dinitro group as an energy resource. A quantitative miscibility investigation between the plasticizers and uncured GAP showed that REPs exhibited better miscibility than conventional energetic plasticizers. The plasticization effect of the REPs on the GAP prepolymer with respect to the reduction of the viscosity illustrated REPs can effectively reduce the viscosity of the GAP prepolymer from 6,015 cP to 150–240 cP at the processing temperature when 50 wt‐% of REP was added. A comparison of the click reactivity and activation energies (Ea) of REPs and GAP prepolymer elucidated that the reactivity of azide‐alkyne cycloaddition depended on the dipolarophilicity of REPs which could be controlled by adjusting the length of methylene spacer between electron‐withdrawing groups (EWG) and neighboring alkynes in REPs. Thermogravimetric analysis manifested REP/GAP‐based PU binders maintained the thermal stability of the control GAP‐based PU binder. The mechanical properties and impact insensitivity of the GAP‐based PU binders were also improved by the incorporation of REPs.

The design of nonmigratory energetic plasticizers with low sensitivity and high performance is of great significance but challenging. Herein, two nonmigratory norbornanebased reactive plasticizers (NRPs) are attached covalently to poly(glycidyl azide-co-tetrahydrofuran) (PGT)-based polyurethanes (PUs), offering a reliable, self-stable, and alternative energy source originating from ring strain, while mitigating the dangers to the environment by preventing migration. A binary mixture of PGT and NRPs is thermodynamically miscible up to 50/50 w/w. The catalyst-free click reactivity of the NRPs toward PGT evaluated by the activation energy is verified by calculating the frontier molecular orbital energy levels.The absent weight loss of the pure NRPs evident from the measured thermal stability of the NRP/PGT-based PU binders indicated that the NRPs react completely with the PGT matrix. The tensile properties of the PGT-based PU binder by the inclusion of NRPs increased with increasing NRP content because of the increased number of triazole groups and the norbornane moiety.

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Two reactive energetic plasticizers, 3-((2,2-dinitropropoxy)methoxy)prop-1-yne and 4-((2,2-dinitropropoxy)methoxy)but-1-yne which can react with an azido-containing poly(glycidyl azide-co-tetramethylene glycol) prepolymer by cupper-free 1,3-dipolor cycloaddition (“Click”) reaction, were synthesized and characterized, in order to investigate their plasticizing performance and catalyst-free 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactivity on energetic polyurethane binders. Two reactive energetic plasticizers showed better plasticizing performance than commercial energetic plasticizers. In the reactivity point of view, 3-((2,2-dinitropropoxy)methoxy)prop-1-yne exhibited higher Click reactivity than 4-((2,2-dinitropropoxy)methoxy)but-1-yne. Two synthesized plasticizers were found to fulfill the requirements for use as reactive energetic plasticizers.

Energetic monomers with new design concept were synthesized for energetic prepolymers. Novel energetic monomers consisted of ring-opening polymerizable oxirane and a molecular explosive moiety instead of small explosophores as energetic functional groups. According to the design concept, glycidyl dinitroazetidine (GDNAZ) and glycidyl nitroazetidinol(GNAZO) energetic monomers were synthesized, respectively, and characterized by NMR, EA and GC MS. Heat of formation and detonation performance were calculated by theoretical method to evaluate energy performance of these novel energetic monomers. The result revealed that GDANZ and GNAZO possessed high potential as new energetic monomers for synthesizing energetic prepolymers and binders in PBXs.