Recent advances and perspective of g-C3N4-based materials for efficient solar fuel (hydrogen) generation via photocatalytic water-splitting

Graphitic Carbon Nitride (g-C3N4) photocatalyst is considered a prime material for environmental remediation and solar energy conversion application. It drew attention in the field of artificial photosynthesis, i.e. solar fuel (hydrogen) generation via photocatalytic water splitting due to its high chemical and thermal stability, appealing optical properties, low cost, suitable band structure, non-toxicity, easy synthesis, and/or visible light band gap (-2.7 eV) Herein, this review focuses on the recent advances on g-C3N4-based materials for efficient solar fuel (Hydrogen) generation via photocatalytic water-splitting, especially synthesis approach, morphological strategies (0D, 1D, 2D, and 3D, g-C3N4)), modification of g-C3N4 including doping strategies and heterostructure formation. Different challenges associated with g-C3N4, hindering its overall performance are also identified. Also, the recent advancement of g-C3N4-based materials towards solar fuel (hydrogen) generation application is reviewed. The preparation approach for g-C3N4, photocatalytic reaction and structural and electronic modification are reviewed. Importantly, the solar H2 production improvements achieved in the study of the g-C3N4 material as the main photocatalyst have been exclusively reviewed and discussed. Based on the findings in this review, Ti3C2/N,S-TiO2/g-C3N4 is the compound with highest hydrogen production rate of 49506 mu mol h-1 g-1, using thermal annealing and ultrasonic assisted impregnation method with H2O as the only sacrificial agent. Thus, this review would likely motivate researchers to broaden the applications for g-C3N4-based materials in solar fuel (hydrogen) generation.