In situ extract nucleate sites for the growth of free-standing carbon nitride films on various substrates

Abstract Developing a simple and general method to fabricate graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) film is crucial for the application of devices. Herein, we report a CCl 4 -assisted method for the fabrication of continuous g-CN films on various substrates with in-situ extracted metal cations as nucleate sites. The g-CN film exhibits continuous wrinkles-like graphene structure, and can be completely exfoliated as a free-standing film. In the g-CN film, the metallic cations are bonded with the electron-rich nitrogen as the nucleate sites for connecting molecular structure. By changing the synthesis temperature and the flow rate of CCl 4 , the thickness and the band structure of the g-CN films can be successfully adjusted. Under visible light illumination, the g-CN films exhibit efficient hydrogen evolution with a rate of 74.98 μmol g −1  h −1 . We believe that the precise controlled free-standing g-CN film will shed light on many opportunities in the utilization of graphitic carbon nitride for catalysis, sensor, electronic and energy-related applications. This method may open a new avenue to fabricate other two-dimensional films on different substrates.