Energetic Materials from Cubane
Abstract:
New generations of highly energetic materials are required for the modern Navy. Cubane is a very dense, exceptionally energetic hydrocarbon its heat of formation, density, and strain energy are all extraordinarily high--in combination unexceeded by any other stable hydrocarbon. This dense, energetic system has 8 identical methine C-H groups at which hydrogen may be replaced by energy-rich substituents. The goal of this project is to understand the fundamental properties of the basic set of reactive intermediates that might be used for the functionalization of the cubane nucleus. Only cubane-1,4- dicarboxylic acid is available readily. Ways to introduce other substituents elsewhere on the cubane nucleus are needed. As cubanes are far from the ordinary in their chemical behavior, this necessitates the development of radically new methodology.