The development of game-changing energetic materials is a challenge due to the CHNO ceiling, the notion that organic compounds are unable to make significant gains in energetic properties over their predecessors. For this reason, our work in energetics research has turned toward introducing metal atoms to add new functionality to materials. Known energetic moieties from organic structures can be used as ligands for these metals to create complexes, clusters, or frameworks. The focus of this research is the energetic content of the metal center, investigating the hypothesis that an unstable, reducing metal center such as titanium(II) will lead to a large combustion exotherm. Data from bomb calorimetric measurements supports this hypothesis: for complexes of hydrotris(pyrazolyl)borate, the titanium metal center resulted in larger heat of combustion compared to iron and manganese analogs. Ongoing research seeks to expand on these results with other titanium(II) complexes containing borate ligands of higher nitrogen content.

Investigating titanium(II) metal centers as fuel atoms in energetic materials

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.