Alkyl group-decorated g-C 3 N 4 for enhanced gas-phase CO 2 photoreduction.

With excellent physical/chemical stability and feasible synthesis, g-C 3 N 4 has attracted much attention in the field of photocatalysis. However, its weak photoactivity limits its practical applications. Herein, by easily planting hydrophobic alkyl groups onto g-C 3 N 4 , the hydrophilicity of g-C 3 N 4 can be well regulated and its specific surface area be enlarged simultaneously. Such a modification ensures enhanced CO 2 capture and increased active sites. In addition, the introduction of alkyl groups endows g-C 3 N 4 with abundant charge density and efficient separation of photoinduced excitons. All these advantages synergistically contribute to the enhanced photocatalytic CO 2 reduction performance over the optimized catalyst (DCN90), and the total CO 2 conversion is 7.4-fold that of pristine g-C 3 N 4 (CN).