Energetic ionic compounds are a unique class of novel energetic materials,including energetic salts and energetic ionic liquids.Energetic ionic compound is one of the effective way to develop new high-energy, low-sensitive and non-toxic materials. To meet the requirement of multifunctional energetic materials for weapons and equipments, the chemical structure of cation and anion of energetic ionic compounds can be introduced by the molecular design. This approach makes energetic salts contain the various excellent functions, such as high-fever, high-density, insensitive, stable, environmentally friendly and so on. This article summarizes the research background, performance and molecular design of the energetic ionic compounds, and looks forward to the research trend of energetic ionic compounds. Energetic ionic compounds will be applied increasingly in the fields of explosive, propellant, etc.