A Comprehensive Review of Graphitic Carbon Nitride (g-C3N4)–Metal Oxide-Based Nanocomposites: Potential for Photocatalysis and Sensing

Abstract

g-C₃N₄ has drawn lots of attention due to its photocatalytic activity, low-cost and facile synthesis, and interesting layered structure. However, to improve some of the properties of g-C₃N₄, such as photochemical stability, electrical band structure, and to decrease charge recombination rate, and towards effective light-harvesting, g-C₃N₄-metal oxide-based heterojunctions have been introduced. In this review, we initially discussed the preparation, modification, and physical properties of the g-C₃N₄ and then, we discussed the combination of g-C₃N₄ with various metal oxides such as TiO₂, ZnO, FeO, Fe₂O₃, Fe₃O₄, WO₃, SnO, SnO₂, etc. We summarized some of their characteristic properties of these heterojunctions, their optical features, photocatalytic performance, and electrical band edge positions. This review covers recent advances, including applications in water splitting, CO₂ reduction, and photodegradation of organic pollutants, sensors, bacterial disinfection, and supercapacitors. We show that metal oxides can improve the efficiency of the bare g-C₃N₄ to make the composites suitable for a wide range of applications. Finally, this review provides some perspectives, limitations, and challenges in investigation of g-C₃N₄-metal-oxide-based heterojunctions.