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Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), as an attractive metal-free polymer photocatalyst, has attracted extensive attention in energy and environmental fields in recent years. The photoactivity of bulk g-C3N4 is moderate on account of solid-phase thermal-condensation synthesis. This leads to inadequate light absorption, limited surface area, and easy recombination of charge carriers. The composition and nanostructure of g-C3N4 have been studied extensively. Molten-salt modulation is fascinating because of its "green" credentials and the properties of liquid-phase reaction systems. The review focuses mainly on molten-salt modulation of the composition and structure of g-C3N4 based-photocatalysts. We focus on elemental doping, molecular doping, and defect engineering, as well as control of the crystal structure, multi-dimensional structure, hom/heterostructures for photocatalytic applications. This review provides new insights to develop g-C3N4-based photocatalysts with control of composition and structure by facile molten-salt modulation in energy-conversion and environmental fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crystalline carbon dots (CCDs) embedded in carbon nitride (CN) nanofragments (CCDs-CN) have been developed through facile molten salt treatment. Molten salt treatment not only reconstructs CN layered sheets to form nanofragments, but also promotes the crystallization of CDs-CN. The π-conjugated electric field between CCDs and CN accelerates charge carrier separation for efficient photocatalytic H2 evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Condensed π-conjugation C-PAN/MS-CN nanotubes were obtained via a facile polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-confined molten salt (MS) thermal condensation of melamine. Carbonized PAN (C-PAN) nanosheets with a conjugate network structure in the molten salt system acted as partition plates confining the thermal condensation of melamine, which promoted the formation of condensed π-conjugation carbon nitride (CN) for the effective charge carrier separation and photocatalytic H2 evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]