A General Synthesis of Porous Carbon Nitride Films with Tunable Surface Area and Photophysical Properties

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) has emerged as a promising material for energy-related applications. However, exploitation of g-CN in practical devices is still limited owing to difficulties in fabricating g-CN films with adjustable properties and high surface area. A general and simple pathway is reported to grow highly porous and large-scale g-CN films with controllable chemical and photophysical properties on various substrates using the doctor blade technique. The growth of g-CN films, ascribed to the formation of a supramolecular paste, comprises g-CN monomers in ethylene glycol, which can be cast on different substrates. The g-CN composition, porosity, and optical properties can be tuned by the design of the supramolecular paste, which upon calcination results in a continuous porous g-CN network. The strength of the porous structure is demonstrated by high electrochemically active surface area, excellent dye adsorption and photoelectrochemical and photodegradation properties.