Chemical exfoliation of graphitic carbon nitride for efficient heterogeneous photocatalysis

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-C3N4 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-C3N4 are then studied. Compared with the bulk g-C3N4, single layer g-C3N4 nanosheets show great superiority in photogenerated charge carrier transfer and separation. Accordingly, the photocatalytic H2 production and pollutant decomposition activities and photocurrent generation of single layer g-C3N4 nanosheets are much higher than those of the bulk g-C3N4, indicating the great application potential of single layer g-C3N4 nanosheets in photocatalysis and photosynthesis.