Chemical exfoliation of graphitic carbon nitride for efficient heterogeneous photocatalysis

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Vol. 1; no. 46; pp. 14766 - 14772
• Main Authors: Xu, Jing, Zhang, Liwu, Shi, Rui, Zhu, Yongfa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2013
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/c3ta13188b

Single atomic layer nanosheet materials show great application potential in many fields due to their enhanced intrinsic properties compared to their counterparts and newly born properties. Herein, g-C sub(3)N sub(4) nanosheets with a single atomic layer structure are prepared by a simple chemical exfoliation method. The as-prepared nanosheets show a single atomic thickness of 0.4 nm and a lateral size of micrometers. The structure and photocatalytic properties of the as-prepared single layer g-C sub(3)N sub(4) are then studied. Compared with the bulk g-C sub(3)N sub(4), single layer g-C sub(3)N sub(4) nanosheets show great superiority in photogenerated charge carrier transfer and separation. Accordingly, the photocatalytic H sub(2) production and pollutant decomposition activities and photocurrent generation of single layer g-C sub(3)N sub(4) nanosheets are much higher than those of the bulk g-C sub(3)N sub(4), indicating the great application potential of single layer g-C sub(3)N sub(4) nanosheets in photocatalysis and photosynthesis.