Engineering carbon-defects on ultrathin g-C₃N₄ allows one-pot output and dramatically boosts photoredox catalytic activity

Herein, carbon-defect engineering and 2-dimensional engineering are integrated into g-C₃N₄ at once, allowing one-pot output of ultrathin g-C₃N₄ photocatalyst by a thermal-triggering in-situ gas-shocking process using endogenous gas (CO₂, H₂O, and NH₃) from urea solution. The optimal photocatalyst U₁W₁-CNS presents an ultrathin structure (2 nm thickness) with abundant carbon-defects in a porous state, thereby endowed with outstanding structural property (191.4 m² g⁻¹, 0.61 cm³ g⁻¹). Meanwhile, benefited from the emergent carbon defects, the conduction band of U₁W₁-CNS can be shifted to a higher energy level, thus contributing to stronger reduction ability which was comprehensively confirmed by experimental evidence and DFT calculation, and the hydrophilicity of U₁W₁-CNS is further improved by more exposed edge amino moieties. As expected, U₁W₁-CNS affords 57 folders of hydrogen production (10.14 mmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹) efficiency, and greater degradation efficiency for different organic pollutants RhodamineB (k = 0.0311 min⁻¹), tetracycline (k = 0.0135 min⁻¹), norfloxacin (k = 0.0091 min⁻¹), ciprofloxacin (k = 0.012 min⁻¹), and levofloxacin (k = 0.0078 min⁻¹).