Engineering of graphitic carbon nitride-based heterojunction photocatalysts

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has emerged as one of the most promising photocatalysts due to its ability to utilize solar energy for production of solar fuels and for degradation of pollutants. Despite exhibiting excellent optoelectronic and electrocatalytic properties, the photocatalytic performance of g-C3N4 remains low due to its poor light utilization and high recombination rate. Hence, various efforts have been performed to facilitate the photocatalytic activity of g-C3N4. In particular, coupling g-C3N4 with other materials to form heterojunction photocatalysts has been shown to successfully enhance the overall performance of g-C3N4. This strategy does not only extend the optical absorption of g-C3N4, but also efficiently improve the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. In this chapter, the basic concepts of heterojunction photocatalysts as well as recent works of g-C3N4-based heterojunction photocatalysts will be presented.