The progress in synthesis and performance of nitrourea energetic materials such as five-membered ring nitroureas, especially glycoluril was systematically reviewed. The nitrourea energetic materials have better thermal stability, higher density and higher energy level, but bisnitrourea-compounds have the poor hydrolytic stability, which restricts their application. Pointed out that the studies on glycoluril derivatives and seven-membered ring and eight-membered ring nitrourea energetic materials are less relatively. To improve actual application values of nitrourea energetic materials, the synthesis of new compounds by designing good nitrogen heterocyclic molecular skeleton and introducing nitroform group (—C(NO₂)₃), nitro group (—NO₂), amino(—NH₂) group and nitramino group(N—NO₂) etc energetic groups into the molecular skeleton may be considered. A research direction in design and synthesis for new nitrourea energetic materials is proposed with 52 references.