Publication

Abstract : Over the past decades, many materials like metal oxides, conducting polymers, carbon nanotubes, 2D materials, graphene, zeolites and porous organic frameworks (MOFs and COFs) have been explored for chemo-sensing applications owing to their unique properties. One such 2D material in the center of attraction in recent years is graphitic polymeric carbon nitride, g-CN (so-called g-C3N4). It has emerged as a potential candidate for chemo-sensing applications due to its facile synthesis, physicochemical properties, and tunable electronic structures. Though there are a few reports and reviews available for various other sensing principles of g-C3N4, such as photo-electrochemical, electrochemiluminescence, electrochemical and fluorescence-based ion-sensing and bio-sensing, it is difficult to find a comprehensive review solely on the chemi-resistive gas sensing signatures of g-C3N4. This stood out as our first and foremost inspiration to compile this review by focusing on chemi-resistive sensors reported using g-C3N4 and its composites. In this review, the humidity and VOC sensing applications of g-C3N4 & its composites have been accentuated. A detailed sensing mechanism, along with the specific rationales for selective detection, has been presented. Along with the specific figures of merit of the g-C3N4 based chemo-sensors, a futuristic perspective of carbon nitride-based hybrid materials and key strategies to improve the sensing characteristics are presented. Thus, this progress in the recently booming g-C3N4 and its hybrid-based chemo-sensors paves a way to further fabricate different forms of g-C3N4 based sensors for the challenges ahead in the field of energy and environment, especially IoT based futuristic sensing platforms.