Recent advancements in the development of graphitic like carbon nitride (G-C₃N₄) photocatalyst for volatile organic compounds removal: A review

Environmental pollution has a direct and indirect influence on human life and the ecosystem. The huge emissions from the industries such as oil factories, petrochemical plants and other sources could cause many influences such as human disease, global warming and ozone depletion. This calls for intensive research on renewable energy, decreasing atmospheric air pollution and water contamination. Graphitic carbon nitride, g-C₃N₄ has attracted much attention as a promising semiconductor material that can be used in a comprehensive photocatalytic application due to photochemical characteristics and thermal stability. g-C₃N₄ has the ability to generate charge carriers that form oxygen reactive species upon irradiation with light. The highly reactive oxygen species such as peroxides, superoxide, hydroxyl radical, singlet oxygen, and alpha-oxygen are responsible for the oxidative removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pollutants. Besides, there is potential to improve the structural and catalytic performance of g-C₃N₄ through the formation of composite materials. This review article emphasizes strategies for synthesis, characterization and catalytic performance of g-C₃N₄ composites for removal of VOCs present in the environment. Recent advancements in the field were highlighted and gaps and hotspots in the fabrication of g-C₃N₄ based nanoengineered materials for removal of VOCs were thoroughly discussed.