On-Demand Energetic Nanocomposites with Tunable Thermal Sensitivity from Porous Metal–Organic Frameworks

Strategies for developing safer energetic materials (EMs) have long been a focus in the field. Realization of activatable explosives has seen some progress, with the few existing examples based on switchable desensitization of sensitive monomolecular EMs; absent are activatable EMs comprising nonenergetic components. Here, a metal–organic framework (MOF)-based strategy is used to formulate explosive materials from completely nonenergetic components that are combined to achieve controlled, on-demand sensitivity. Application of this strategy resulted in EMs that are insensitive to impact, friction, and electrostatic discharge but become explosive only when heated beyond the point of oxidizer melt infiltration into the MOF. The structural metal in the MOF dramatically influences thermal sensitivity, heat evolution, and gas release. Controlled sensitization of inert components through heating, enabling nanoscopic mixing of fuel, oxidizer, and catalyst by melt infiltration, presents a strategy to produce safer-to-handle EMs.