This special issue of Engineering comprises seven papers,con-tributed by experts from China,the United States,and the United Kingdom.The topics cover the synthesis and characterization of energetic materials,their energetic properties and combustion per-formances,ultrahigh pressure behavior,and diagnostic experimen-tal techniques.The majority of the articles in this special issue report on the synthesis of novel energetic materials via chemical,physical,and ultrahigh pressure techniques,owing to its perpetual importance in the field of energetic materials.Thermomechanical,physical,and chemical processes that occur in energetic materials during manufacturing and processing or under the influence of external stimuli,such as shock compression,are inherently multi-scale in nature.Understanding the structure-loading-property relations of energetic materials calls for temporally and spatially resolved diagnostics;research on diagnostics has long lagged behind that on synthesis.A review article is thus dedicated to novel diagnostics.