Molecule self-assembly synthesis of porous few-layer carbon nitride for highly efficient photoredox catalysis

Polymeric carbon nitride (C ₃ N ₄ ) has emerged as the most promising candidate for metal-free photocatalysts but is plagued by low activity due to the poor quantum efficiency and low specific surface area. Exfoliation of bulk crystals into ultrathin nanosheets has proven to be an effective and widely used strategy for enabling high photocatalytic performances; however, this process is complicated, time-consuming, and costly. Here, we report a simple bottom-up method to synthesize porous few-layer C ₃ N ₄ , which involves molecule self-assembly into layered precursors, alcohol molecules intercalation, and subsequent thermal-induced exfoliation and polycondensation. The as-prepared few-layer C ₃ N ₄ expose more active sites and greatly enhance the separation of charge carriers, thus exhibiting a 26-fold higher hydrogen evolution activity than bulk counterpart. Furthermore, we find that both the high activity and selectivity for the oxidative coupling of amines to imines can be obtained under visible light that surpass those of other metal-free photocatalysts so far.