Recent advances in noble metal free doped graphitic carbon nitride based nanohybrids for photocatalysis of organic contaminants in water: A review

Vasudha Hasija, Pankaj Raizada*, Anita Sudhaik, Kirti Sharma, Abhinandan Kumar, Pardeep Singh, Sreekantha B. Jonnalagadda, Vijay Kumar Thakur

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

418 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Extensive contamination of water bodies by textile dyeing industries, organic pollutants and agricultural waste has emerged water pollution as one of the major global environmental crisis. The effect of this gross negligence is posing serious threats to human health therefore today; conserving water resources for the essence of life is of grave concern. Recently, advancements in photocatalytic properties of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) for wastewater treatment have gained tremendous interest in research. However, pristine g-C 3 N 4 suffers from bottlenecks such as low surface area, rapid recombination of photo-generated electron–hole pairs and insufficient light absorption which thereby, reduces the photocatalytic degradation activity. Hitherto, noble metals have been widely utilized as dopants but are cost ineffective, rarely found and are difficult to recover. In this updated and all-inclusive review we have briefly discussed photocatalysis mechanism, primarily focused on non-precious elemental doping via various synthesis techniques of noble metal free doped g-C 3 N 4 photocatalysts. Typically metal, non-metal, rare earth metal doping and co-doping have been explored, which demonstrates the synergistic behavior of the doped nanocomposites in modulation of electronic structure, broaden the visible light absorption range, enhancement in photocatalytic wastewater remediation ability to obtain maximum pollutant eradication. Summary remarks conclude the review with valuable knowledge of noble metal free doped g-C 3 N 4 photocatalysts for water purification and sheds light on current challenges and crucial issues associated with its commercialization. The future aspect aims at designing of efficient solar light driven photocatalysts for application in various domains i.e. production of H 2 and O 2 , reduction of CO 2 , practical use of solar cells, treatment of wastewater, air purification and environmental conservation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)494-524
Number of pages31
JournalApplied Materials Today
Volume15
Early online date15 Apr 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPrint publication - Jun 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C N )
  • Improved photocatalytic activity
  • Inherent drawbacks of g-C N as photocatalyst
  • Noble metal free doping of g-C N
  • Wastewater treatment

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