The traditional ways of developing increasingly energetic materials us
ually lead to an increase in shock and impact sensitivities. It is, th
erefore, of practical and theoretical importance to design model, high
ly-energetic polycrystalline systems which will clearly indicate, at t
he molecular level, the interplay between the shock-induced reaction m
echanisms and the associated excited lattice states. Theoretical and e
xperimental studies indicate that such systems may possibly be constru
cted from special materials such as high-quality pyrolytic, layered gr
aphite and hexagonal boron nitride (BN) crystals. Although each layer
of graphite and BN is one of the most stable structures in nature, int
ercalation of the crystals with various oxidizing agents can yield ene
rgetic systems with the desired properties. As an example, intercalati
on with HNO3 gives crystals of density 2.20 g/cc. The optimal position
ing of the HNO3 molecules between the BN layers allows the rapid forma
tion of B2O3 in a single step with a large release of energy. A possib
le triggering mechanism is the shock-induced, partial sps hybridizatio
n of the layers as a result of kink band formation.