CHAPTER 3: Template-based Fabrication of Porous Carbon Nitride Nanostructures for Electrochemical Energy Conversion

With the ever-increasing energy demand and severe energy crisis, the search for highly efficient energy storage and conversion devices becomes more and more crucial. Among the options available, fuel cells, water electrolysis, supercapacitors, and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are the optimal alternatives. The commercialization of the aforementioned devices primarily relies on the preparation of high-performance electrocatalysts or electrode materials. Given the mature synthesis, low cost, unique thermal stability, and tunable structural properties, graphitic carbon nitride (gCN) nanostructures have drawn considerable attention in electrochemical applications but are still restricted by having low surface area and poor electronic conductivity. To overcome these deficiencies, many efforts have been devoted to the template-based construction of porous gCN nanostructures with various functionalities like doping or functionalization with metal, metal-oxide, and non-metals for various electrochemical applications. This chapter focuses on the recent research progress in the synthesis of porous gCN nanostructures using template-based methods (i.e., hard templates and soft templates) and their utilization in the electrochemical energy conversion technologies. This includes fuel cell reactions (i.e., oxygen reduction, alcohol oxidation, and water splitting) and energy production/storage (i.e., supercapacitor and Li-ion batteries). This is alongside a discussion of the current barriers and future prospects of gCN for energy applications.