Présentation du Scientic Breakthrough Project IPPON

In our contemporary society, one of the most urgent challenges is the need to reduce CO2 emissions and to live in a clean environment, making it crucial to develop novel concepts for efficient depollution and energy conversion and storage in a variety of forms, among which chemicals. Photocatalysis is the key approach to reach these objectives, based on the use of sunlight or inexpensive artificial light sources. Still, the efficiency of these reactions would substantially benefit from the unprecedented potential of nanophotonics to trap and confine light and of nanophononics to control temperatures locally.

The objective of this project is to develop novel concepts based using advanced micro and nanostructured media enabling both incoherent light confinement and thermal trapping. To achieve this, we will develop a complete methodology based on theoretical predictions, multi-domain and multi-scale modelling, chemical synthesis and micro-nanopatterning of functional materials, advanced experiments in optics, phonon dynamics and photochemistry, by combining the skills of scientists from 4 laboratories in Lyon and Saint-Etienne: INL, Lab.HC, ILM and IRCELYON, specialists in physics, chemistry and engineering, from CNRS, ECL, INSA Lyon, UCBL and UJM.

Our project is expected to achieve major scientific and technological breakthroughs, including:

• The design and fabrication of micro-nanostructured media dedicated to photocatalysis, using original and scalable approaches, compatibles with large areas and high throughput.
• The demonstration of novel photocatalysis regimes, with enhanced yield, due to local thermal trapping in illuminated nanostructured media.
• The demonstration of efficient depollution (after the 2nd year of the project) and artificial photosynthesis (at the end of the project), using dedicated demonstrator devices.

Beyond these achievements, a key objective is to promote a strong and long-lasting scientific interaction between the research groups involved, in such a way to bring the University of Lyon to the world level consortia active in the area of photocatalysis for remediation and energy. This will also be made possible by integrating the complementary nanotechnology facilities available in Lyon (Nanolyon) and Saint-Etienne (NanoSaintEtienne), were the highest standard equipment will be made available using the co-financing requested in this project. In the longer term, the methodology developed for incoherent light and thermal management will also be used in other areas like solar photovoltaics, biological and environmental sensing and information technologies.

Novel approaches to depollute water and air or to produce solar fuels by artificial photosynthesis are the objectives of the IPPON project. With a total funding of 1.2M€, IPPON is one of the six projects selected in the frame of the 2018 Scientific Breakthrough Program of the IDEXLYON. This 3-years project takes place in 4 research laboratories: INL (Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon), Lab.HC (Laboratoire Hubert Curien) in Saint-Étienne, ILM (Institut Lumière Matière) in Villeurbanne and IRCELYON (Institut de recherches sur la catalyse et l'environnement de Lyon), involving CNRS, École Centrale de Lyon, INSA de Lyon, Université Jean-Monnet and l'Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 academics and research scientists.

Specialists in physics, engineering and chemistry are designing and fabricating dedicated « photonic » and « phononic » structures. They also investigate their optical and thermal properties of and their impact on artificial photosynthesis and related reactions. The IPPON project aims at demonstrating novel photocatalysis regimes, particularly fast and efficient, thanks to the possibility to trap solar light. The goal is to increase the rate of the photocatalytic reactions, which is too low at present, in particular when it comes to generating solar fuels.

Indeed, the goal of photocatalysis is to accelerate specific chemical reactions. To achieve this, a semiconductor medium is “activated” thanks to the energy brought by light. To increase the efficiency of this process, scientists involved in this project use photonic crystals, made of matter drilled by holes as small as hundreds of nanometres. When light interact with these holes, it is slowed down and it stays for a longer time in the active medium. This enables a more efficient control of photocatalysis.

Finally, the IPPON project could pave the way to very promising ways to produce solar fuels thanks to the possibility to convert and store the energy from the sun, or to produce depollution units. Thanks to the chemical reactions activated by light, pollutants could then be efficiently degraded or transformed into useful chemicals. In the area of solar energy conversion, the project aims at reaching the “threshold” of 5% efficiency for the photocatalytic reactions at the basis of artificial photosynthesis.