Abstract
Photocatalytic processes based on various semiconductors have been widely utilized in different applications, with great potential for use in environmental pollution remediation and sustainable energy generation. However, critical issues, including low light adsorption capability, wide energy bandgap, and unsatisfactory physicochemical stability still seriously limit the practical applications of photocatalysts. As a solution, the introduction of carbonaceous materials with different structures and properties into a photocatalyst system to further increase the activity has attracted much research attention. This mini review surveys the related literatures and highlights recent progress in the development of carbonaceous photocatalysts, which include various metal semiconductors with activated carbon, carbon dots, carbon nanotubes/nanofibers, graphene, fullerene, and carbon sponges/aerogels. Moreover, graphitic carbon nitride is also discussed as a carbon-rich and metal-free photocatalyst. The recently developed synthesis strategies and proposed mechanisms underlying the photocatalytic activity enhancement for different applications are summarized and discussed. Finally, ongoing challenges and the developmental direction for carbonaceous photocatalysts are proposed.
Highlights
With the rapid development of economic and industrial techniques, environmental pollution and energy shortage have emerged as worldwide issues that seriously limit the sustainable development of human society
This review provided a summary on the design and synthesis of carbonaceous photocatalysts for various applications of environmental remediation and energy conversion
The highlighted carbonaceous photocatalysts in this review mainly derive from activated carbon, carbon dots, carbon nanotubes/nanofibers, graphene, fullerene, g-C3 N4, and carbon sponges/aerogels
Summary
With the rapid development of economic and industrial techniques, environmental pollution and energy shortage have emerged as worldwide issues that seriously limit the sustainable development of human society. Materials 2019, 12, 1916 and insufficient physicochemical stability of metal semiconductors, which seriously limit the practical application of photocatalysts [16,17,18]. It is imperative to develop next-generation photocatalysts with high visible-light efficiency, low cost, and good stability. As shown in Scheme 1 and Table 1, in this mini review we demonstrate a brief summary and a critical discussion on the recent developments of carbonaceous photocatalysts for various applications, such as the photodegradation of organic pollutants, water splitting, reduction of CO2 , etc. We anticipate that this mini review could be helpful for the understanding of the development in the trend of the generation of carbonaceous photocatalysts, and provide a guidance for the design and fabrication of novel visible-light photocatalysts with enhanced performance.
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