Laser-Ignited Relay-Domino-Like Reactions in Graphene Oxide/CL-20 Films for High-Temperature Pulse Preparation of Bi-Layered Photothermal Membranes.

Light-ignited combustions have been proposed for a variety of industrial and scientific applications. They suffer, however, from ultrahigh light ignition thresholds and poor self-propagating combustion of typical high-energy density materials, e.g., 2,4,6,8,10,12-(hexanitrohexaaza)cyclododecane (CL-20). Here, reported is that both light ignition and combustion performance of CL-20 are greatly enhanced by embedding ε-CL-20 particles in a graphene oxide (GO) matrix. The GO matrix yields a drastic temperature rise that is sufficient to trigger the combustion of GO/CL-20 under low laser irradiation (35.6 mJ) with only 6 wt% of GO. The domino-like reduction-combustion of the GO matrix can serve as a relay and deliver the decomposition-combustion of CL-20 to its neighbor sites, forming a relay-domino-like reaction. In particular, a synergistic reaction between GO and CL-20 occurrs, facilitating more energy release of the GO/CL-20 composite. The novel relay-domino-like reaction coupled with the synergistic reaction of CL-20 and GO results in a deflagration of the material, which generates a high-temperature pulse (HTP) that can be guided to produce advanced functional materials. As a proof of concept, a bi-layered photothermal membrane is prepared by HTP treatment in an extremely simple and fast way, which can serve as a model architecture for efficient interfacial water evaporation.