Light-Driven Integration of Graphitic Carbon Nitride into Polymer Materials

Abstract

As a metal-free polymeric semiconductor with an absorption in the visible range, carbon nitride has numerous advantages for photo-based applications spanning hydrogen evolution, CO2 reduction, ion transport, organic synthesis and organic dye degradation. The combination of g-C3N4 and polymer networks grants mutual benefit for both platforms, as networks are upgraded with photoactivity or formed by photoinitiation, and g-C3N4 is integrated into novel applications. In the present contribution, some of the recently published projects regarding g-C3N4 and polymeric materials will be highlighted. In the first study, organodispersible g-C3N4 were incorporated into a highly commercialized porous resin called poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) through suspension photopolymerization, and performances of resulting beads were investigated as recyclable photocatalysts. In the other study, g-C3N4 nanosheets were embedded in porous hydrogel networks, and so-formed hydrogels with photoactivity were transformed either into a ‘hydrophobic hydrogel’ or pore-patched materials via secondary network introduction, where both processes were accomplished via visible light. Since g-C3N4 is an organic semiconductor exhibiting sufficient charge separation under visible light illumination, a novel method for the oxidative photopolymerization of EDOT was successfully accomplished. As a result of the absence of dissolved anions during polymerization, so-formed neutral PEDOT is a highly viscous liquid that can be processed and post-doped easily, and grants facile coating processes.