Synthesis, characterization and evaluation of 1,2-bis(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl) hydrazine: a key precursor for the synthesis of high performance energetic materials.

1,2-Bis(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl) hydrazine (3) is one of the precursors in the synthesis of an important energetic material viz., hexanitrazobenzene. The simple and convenient lab scale synthesis of title compound (3) was carried out by the condensation of picryl chloride (2) with hydrazine hydrate at 30-50 degrees C in methanol based on the lines of scanty literature reports. Picryl chloride was synthesized by the reaction of picric acid (1) with phosphorous oxychloride based on the lines of reported method. The synthesized compound (3) was characterized by IR and 1H NMR spectral data. Some of the energetic properties of the synthesized compound have also been studied. The theoretically computed energetic properties of the title compound (3) indicated the superior performance in comparison to tetranitrodibenzo tetraazapentalene (TACOT) and hexanitrostilbene (HNS) in terms of velocity of detonation.