Binder-Free Carbon Nitride Panels for Continuous-Flow Photocatalysis

The development of large-scale, binder-free photocatalyst panels, resembling solar panels, is highly appealing, which, along with efficient light management and easy recycling, offers great simplicity by configuring them in a flow-reactor. Here, we report a facile and scalable method for binder-free flat and porous melon-type polymeric carbon nitride (CN) panels with tunable structural and photophysical properties. The CN panel exhibits good photoactivity in a homemade bench-scale reactor for several important catalytic reactions: the production of hydrogen peroxide in concentrations that meet industrial requirements; biomass-derived 5-hydroxymethyfurfural (HMF) oxidation to 2,5-diformylfuran (DFF) under visible light, resulting in a high HMF conversion rate of 1185 μmol h–1 g–1, achieved in heterogeneous photocatalysis with a DFF yield of 13% after 24 h under continuous-flow conditions (1 mL min–1); and hydrogen production. The binder-free deposition method and its good photocatalytic activity broaden avenues for CN photocatalyst-based and other semiconductor panels toward multiple energy-related applications.