Progress and challenges of photocatalytic reduction of CO2 with g-C3N4-based photocatalysts in the context of carbon neutrality

Global warming has seriously threatened the industrial/agricultural productions and human life and has become one of the major challenges facing the world today. Carbon neutrality is an important measure for mitigating the greenhouse effect, and photocatalytic CO2 reduction can effectively reduce carbon emissions and promote the carbon cycle. g-C3N4 has attracted much attention due to its simple preparation process, high stability, suitable energy band position, and excellent photocatalytic performance; thus, improving its efficiency in photocatalytic CO2 reduction has become the focus of current research. The importance of carbon neutrality for the global ecological balance and environmental sustainability and the important role and development prospects of g-C3N4 photocatalytic CO2 reduction in the context of carbon neutrality are the main focuses of this review. The current methods and technical means to solve the difficulty of the g-C3N4 photocatalytic CO2 reduction are summarized. The possible problems in the field of g-C3N4 photocatalytic CO2 reduction are discussed, and future research directions are proposed. The aim of this work is to provide theoretical support for the practical applications of g-C3N4 photocatalytic CO2 reduction and to present potential design concepts for efficient g-C3N4-based photocatalysts.