As an evolving 2D organic semiconductor, graphitic carbon nitride has drawn scientific research interest for applications extending from photo/electrocatalysis to adsorbents and biosensing. Herein, a few atomic-layer-thick carbon nitride nanosheets (CNNS) were synthesized using an in situ exfoliation technique by introducing sodiated sulfate hydrolyzed cellulose nanocrystals into the polymerization precursor mixture. The directly exfoliated CNNS possessed a much higher concentration of unpaired electron spins than bulk carbon nitride (BCN), as evidenced by EPR spectroscopy. Solid-state NMR, and XPS confirmed the incorporation of sodium in the carbon nitride framework. Introducing Na dopants inhibited the stacking and aggregation of carbon nitride nanosheets, widening the bandgap of a material. When compared to BCN, it was discovered that the bandgap of the exfoliated carbon nitride (NaCNC-CNNS) increased from 2.76 to 2.90 eV, along with a fourfold increase in specific surface area and tenfold increase in pore volume. NaCNC-CNNS exhibited a significant advantage in photogenerated charge carrier separation and transfer compared to BCN. Given its higher PEC water splitting performance and higher aqueous dye adsorption efficiency, the NaCNC-CNNS structure appears to be more suitable as a photoelectrocatalyst and adsorbent than BCN. Molecular dynamics simulations and analyses confirmed that the NaCNC-CNNS structure is more exposed, which facilitates the interaction of solvent molecules with nanosheets and promotes their intercalating action.
Chaulagain et al. (Wed,) studied this question.