The crystal structures of the energetic materials biguanidinium mono-dinitramide C2H8N{}_{5}^{\,+}.N3O{}_{4}^{\,-}, (BIGH)(DN), and biguanidinium bis-dinitramide C2H9N{}_{5}^{\,2+}.2N3O{}_{4}^{\,-}, (BIGH2)(DN)2, have been determined at several temperatures in the range 85–298 K using single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. The thermal expansion second-rank tensors have been determined to describe the thermal behavior of the crystals studied. Strongly anisotropic thermal expansion is most important in the direction perpendicular to the least-squares planes of the dinitramide ions in both cases, suggesting that the atomic thermal motion is significantly anharmonic in these crystals. Anharmonicity of thermal motion is also evident from the non-linear temperature dependence of the atomic displacement parameters. Rigid-body analysis of thermal motion both of dinitramide anions and of biguanidinium cations was performed using the libration and translation second-rank tensors. For both compounds, the libration thermal motion is strongly anisotropic with the dominating libration axes oriented in a similar manner in both anions and cations. Although the translation motion of the ions is not strongly anisotropic, the axes of largest thermal displacements are close to the directions of greatest thermal expansion of the crystals.
