A new class of flexible energetic salts, part 2: The crystal structures of the cubane-1,4-diammonium dinitramide and cubane-1,2,4,7-tetraammonium dinitramide salts

The crystal structures of cubane-1,4-diammonium dinitramide, 1, and cubane-1,2,4,7-tetraammonium dinitramide, 2, have been determined. 1 crystallizes in the space group P2₁/c with cell dimensions a = 6.018(2), b = 11.642(3), c = 9.754(3) Å, = 107.24(2), while 2 crystallizes in the space group P2₁/c with cell dimensions a = 9.401(4), b = 9.603(3), c = 12.603(4) Å, 111.08(3). In these structures the ammonium substituents are symmetrically attached with respect to the cubane skeleton and have neither low lying empty orbitals nor available lone pairs of electrons thus they have a minimal effect on the metrical parameters of the cubane skeleton. All C–C bond lengths are close to the overall average C–C bond length for all reported cubanes of 1.559 Å. The conformations adopted by the dinitramide ions in both structures are quite different, with the bend, twist, and torsion angles for the dinitramide ion in 1 being significantly larger than those found for the dinitramide ions in 2, due to the different types of hydrogen bonding found in the two structures. In 2, the conformation adopted by the adjacent ammonium ions allows two of the three protons from each ammonium cation to form hydrogen bonds in such a manner that they span either the syn or the anti oxygen atoms of a single dinitramide anion. The dinitramide anion is thus constrained by these interactions and is less free to twist and bend. These results provide further confirmation that the metrical parameters of both the cubane and dinitramide moieties are flexible and reflect their local environment.