Triazine‐Based Graphitic Carbon Nitride: a Two‐Dimensional Semiconductor

Abstract

Graphitic carbon nitride has been predicted to be structurally analogous to carbon-only graphite, yet with an inherent bandgap. We have grown, for the first time, macroscopically large crystalline thin films of triazine-based, graphitic carbon nitride (TGCN) using an ionothermal, interfacial reaction starting with the abundant monomer dicyandiamide. The films consist of stacked, two-dimensional (2D) crystals between a few and several hundreds of atomic layers in thickness. Scanning force and transmission electron microscopy show long-range, in-plane order, while optical spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations corroborate a direct bandgap between 1.6 and 2.0 eV. Thus TGCN is of interest for electronic devices, such as field-effect transistors and light-emitting diodes.

Abstract of "Triazine‐Based Graphitic Carbon Nitride: a Two‐Dimensional Semiconductor" by Gerardo Algara‐Siller, Nikolai Severin, Samantha Yu-ling Chong et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201402191, used under its Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY); markup removed, otherwise unmodified.