title: Crystallinity Modulation of Layered Carbon Nitride for Enhanced Photocatalytic Activities.
abstract: As an emerging metal-free semiconductor, covalently bonded carbon nitride (CN) has attracted much attention in photocatalysis. However, drawbacks such as a high recombination rate of excited electrons and holes hinder its potential applications. Tailoring the crystallinity of semiconductors is an important way to suppress unwanted charge recombination, but has rarely been applied to CN so far. Herein, a simple method to synthesize CN of high crystallinity by protonation of specific intermediate species during conventional polymerization is reported. Interestingly, the as-obtained CN exhibited improved photocatalytic activities of up to seven times those of the conventional bulk CN. This approach, with only a slight change to the conventional method, provides a facile way to effectively regulate the crystallinity of bulk CN to improve its photocatalytic activities and sheds light on large-scale industrial applications of CN with high efficiency for sustainable energy.
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Province Hi-Tech Key Laboratory for Bio-Medical Research, Jiangsu Optoelectronic Functional Materials and, Engineering Laboratory, School of Chemistry and, Chemical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jianhai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Medical School, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210009, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yanfei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Province Hi-Tech Key Laboratory for Bio-Medical Research, Jiangsu Optoelectronic Functional Materials and, Engineering Laboratory, School of Chemistry and, Chemical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Province Hi-Tech Key Laboratory for Bio-Medical Research, Jiangsu Optoelectronic Functional Materials and, Engineering Laboratory, School of Chemistry and, Chemical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Songqin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Province Hi-Tech Key Laboratory for Bio-Medical Research, Jiangsu Optoelectronic Functional Materials and, Engineering Laboratory, School of Chemistry and, Chemical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, P.R. China. Yuanjian.Zhang@seu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yuanjian
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2932-4159
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: carbon nitride; crystal engineering; photochemistry; polymerization; protonation