An efficient and convenient method for predicting the crystalline densities of energetic materials was established based on the quantum chemical computations. Density functional theory (DFT) with four different basis sets (6-31G**, 6-311G**, 6-31+G**, and 6-311++G**) and various semiempirical molecular orbital (MO) methods have been employed to predict the molecular volumes and densities of a series of energetic nitramines including acyclic, monocyclic, and polycyclic/cage molecules. The relationships between the calculated values and experimental data were discussed in detail, and linear correlations were suggested and compared at different levels. The calculation shows that if the selected basis set is larger, it will expend more CPU (central processing unit) time, larger molecular volume and smaller density will be obtained. And the densities predicted by the serniempirical MO methods are all systematically larger than the experimental data. In comparison with other methods, B3LYP/6-31G** is most accurate and economical to predict the solid-state densities of energetic nitramines. This may be instructive to the molecular designing and screening novel HEDMs. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.