Structural and chemical approaches to enhance the photo/electrocatalytic performance of carbon/g-C3N4 composite materials

Abstract

As a kind of metal-free material, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) is widely used in catalytic materials, energy storage materials and other fields. However, the limited light absorption, low conductivity and high recombination rate of the photogenerated electron–hole pairs limit its further application. Constructing g-C₃N₄ based composite materials by integrating it with carbon materials is an effective and common way to overcome the above shortcomings of g-C₃N₄. In this paper, carbon materials, such as carbon dots, carbon nanotubes, graphene, and carbon spheres, are integrated with g-C₃N₄ to construct carbon/g-C₃N₄ composite materials (CCNCS) and their photoelectrocatalytic performance is reviewed. The effects of those factors such as the categories of carbon materials, carbon content, nitrogen content, the morphology of g-C₃N₄, and the interfacial interactions between carbon and g-C₃N₄ on the photo/electrocatalytic performance of CCNCS are carefully analyzed to help researchers to touch the nature of the synergistic effect of g-C₃N₄ and the carbon ingredient in CCNCS.