A comprehensive review of carbon nitride-based catalysts for overall water splitting: Dimensional insights

초록

Solar hydrogen production through photocatalysis is a green alternative to fossil fuels. This review focuses on state-of-the-art experimental research on g-C₃N₄-based OWS photocatalysts. Special attention is given to the classification of various catalysts based on material dimensionality while comparing their catalytic performances. We discuss the advancements made through doping, nanostructuring, heterojunctions, plasmonic materials, and co-catalysts. The catalytic performance increases by the order: 0D[sbnd]3D[sbnd] (or) 0D[sbnd]2D (or) 2D-3D-g-C3N4-heterojunction <2D-2D-g-C3N4-heterojunction <1D H2-co-catalyst/2D-2D-g-C3N4-heterojunction <0D or 1D H2-co-catalyst/2D-2D-g-C3N4-heterojunction/0D/1D O2 co-catalyst. Doping and nano-structuring strategies leads to inferior performance without both H2 and O2 co-catalysts. The main problems associated with lack of formation of effective heterojunctions, carbon nitride thickness control, and inhomogeneous catalyst structures have been identified. We also highlight the huge demand for developing new preparation methods to ensure precise loading of H2 and O2 co-catalysts on proper sites in the g-C3N4 –based heterojunctions in order to make further advances in this exciting field. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.

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