Polymeric carbon nitride

Polymeric carbon nitride is a wonder 2D material with a many application, such as

• Photocatalyst to oxidize contaminants and colorants
• Photocatalyst to produce hydrogen from water
• Transparent photovoltaic cells (for buildings and cars)
• UV-absorber
• Catalyst to specific organic reactions
• Organic semiconductor to optoelectronics
• Fire retardant
• Fluorescent material

A new type of carbon nitrogen material is under development, defined as C₂N.

Its applications are still under study, but it is a promising material as a photocatalyst and electronics coupled to polymeric carbon nitride.

Polymeric carbon nitride (CN) is a material mainly composed of nitrogen and carbon (C₆N₇NH₂NH) with a layered structure similar to graphite.

It is a wide-band gap semiconductor (E_g 2.5 – 3.0 eV). Its activity as a photocatalyst can be either enhanced or modified in a easy way by introducing other elements or transition metals.

It is studied also to be used in photovoltaic cells (PVC).

Since the band gap energy is large enough to split water into H₂ and O₂, polymeric carbon nitride is studied as a photocatalyst to obtain hydrogen using solar light directly. The following image displays the absorption UV-vis spectra of polymeric carbon nitride synthesized at different temperetaure and a diagram comparing the band gap with the energy to obtain H₂ (1.23 eV).