Recent Research Progress on Surface Modified Graphite Carbon Nitride Nanocomposites and Their Photocatalytic Applications: An Overview

Semiconductors with visible light catalytic characteristics can realize the degradation of pollutants, CO2 reduction, and hydrogen preparation in sunlight. They have huge application value in the fields of environmental repair and green energy. Graphite phase nitride (g-C3N4, CN) is widely used in various fields such as photocatalytic degradation of pollutants due to its suitable gap width, easy preparation, low cost, fast visible light response, and rich surface activity sites. However, the absorption rate of ordinary CN on visible light is low, and the carriers are easy to recombination, making the lower optical catalytic activity. Therefore, in order to improve the photocatalytic characteristics of the CN, it is necessary to make the surface modification. This article first introduces several main methods for the current surface modification of CN, including size regulation, catalyst embedding, defect introduction, heterostructure construction, etc., and then summarizes the optical catalytic application and related mechanisms of CN. Finally, some challenges and development prospects of CN in preparation and photocatalytic applications are proposed.