Recent advancements in the environmental significance of the graphitic carbon nitride-based materials
Sathish Kumar Selvam, S. Rubesh Ashok Kumar, Natarajan Balasubramanian, P. Senthil Kumar, A. Muthukrishnaraj, S. Kalaivani, Rajendran Vinayagam, Raja S. Azarudeen, Mohamed A. Riswan Ahamed, Adhikesavan Harikrishnan, G.A. Suganya Josephine, Gayathri Rangasamy
Abstract
Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has been proven as a potential photocatalyst in the research arena of water remediation, energy harvesting and organic dye degradation etc. Even though, g-C3N4 has profound properties viz. photochemical stability, intriguing electronic band structures, suitable light harvesting, and bandgap energy of 2.7 eV even it has significant drawbacks such as poor disparity, low surface area and high recombination rate of photogenerated electron-hole pairs that leads to reduced photocatalytic activity. However, these drawbacks could be overcome by compositing g-C3N4 with sulfides, ferrites and other metal oxides which provides charge separation, increased surface area and better light absorption. This detailed review focuses on various synthesis methods of g-C3N4-based secondary/ternary nanocomposite and applications in the area of hydrogen evolution, organic pollutant degradation, oxygen evolution and CO2 photoreduction. Alongside, this critical review also summarizes the recent literature that deals with the preparation of g-C3N4/polymer composites and their energy storage and environmental remediation applications. Hence, this review article would attract the broad range of readers working in the research space of g-C3N4 based composite towards various applications.