Chapter 7 - Carbon nitride photocatalysts for water treatment and purification

Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has been regarded as a prospective visible-light-driven material in photocatalysis. There are different modifications of this material due to which it becomes the most extensively studied novel photocatalyst. Moreover, tailoring of g-C3N4-based photocatalyst for performance enhancement attracts immense attention in recent times. An attempt is made in this chapter to highlight the research progress of this material and the success achieved so far by designing g-C3N4-based semiconductor photocatalysts in degradation of toxic organic pollutants in industrial wastewater. Some representative examples are discussed thoroughly which reveals that the enhanced photocatalytic activity is mostly due to the improved light absorption in the visible range, increased specific surface area, narrower band gap, faster charge transfer, and minimal electron-hole pair recombination. Thus, g-C3N4-based heterojunction photocatalysts will be an excellent material in near future for large-scale industrial applications.