A Beehive Inspired Hydrogen Photocatalytic Device Integrating a Carbo- benzene Triptych Material for Efficient Solar Photo-reduction of Seawater

Jérémy Cure (1) , Kévin Cocq (2) , Andréa Nicollet (1) , Kui Tan (3) , Teresa Hungría (4) , Sandrine Assié-Souleille (5) , Séverine Vivies (6) , Ludovic Salvagnac (6) , Manuel Quevedo‐lopez , Valérie Maraval (2) , Rémi Chauvin (2) , Alain Estève (1) , Carole Rossi (1)

1 LAAS-NEO - Équipe Nano-ingénierie et intégration des oxydes métalliques et de leurs interfaces
2 LCC - Laboratoire de chimie de coordination
3 UT Dallas - University of Texas at Dallas [Richardson]
4 Centre Castaing - Centre de microcaractérisation Raimond Castaing
5 LAAS-I2C - Service Instrumentation Conception Caractérisation
6 LAAS-TEAM - Service Techniques et Équipements Appliqués à la Microélectronique

To reduce the size inconvenience of airbag systems employed in human-body protection devices while maintaining comparable gas generation performance, a new family of gas-generating energetic composites are proposed mixing Al/CuO nanothermite with copper complex (Cu(NH 3) 4 (NO 3) 2) known for its propensity to generate gases (0.03 mol/g) such as , , through exothermic chemical decomposition (300 J/g). The aluminum (Al)/Copper oxide (CuO) couple, known as the most widely studied nanomaterial for thermite reactions, releasing a high energy, mostly heat, through chemical reaction, is employed as a source of heat to trigger and sustain the decomposition of Cu(NH 3) 4 (NO 3) 2 complex. This work permits developing a new family of gas-generating energetic composites that takes advantage of specific chemical and thermal properties of both materials. We demonstrate its capability to tune the pressurization rate, burn rate and pressure peak by varying the Al/CuO over Cu(NH 3)(NO 2) 2 mass ratio. The peak pressure of Cu(NH 3) 4 (NO 3) 2 /Al/CuO energetic composites reaches 12 MPa/g.cm 3 in a close volume, which is 3.3 higher than that of traditional Al/CuO nanothermite. They achieve much longer high-pressure duration (~ 30 ms). They also exhibit very intense burning with velocity reaching hundreds of m/s in opening burning experiments. These new materials appear very promising for green gas generation.

Mots clés: Coordination complex; Energetic materials; Non-toxic gas generator; Flame propagation; Airbag; photocatalytic device; hydrogen production; water splitting; triptych system; carbo- benzene dye; gold nanoparticle; titanium dioxide film

Domaines: Chimie; Catalyse; Matériaux

Jérémy Cure, Kévin Cocq, Andréa Nicollet, Kui Tan, Teresa Hungría, et al.. A Beehive Inspired Hydrogen Photocatalytic Device Integrating a Carbo- benzene Triptych Material for Efficient Solar Photo-reduction of Seawater. Advanced Sustainable Systems, 2020, 4 (9), pp.2000121. ⟨10.1002/adsu.202000121⟩. ⟨hal-02895513⟩