Markus Antonietti
Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Research Campus Golm, D-14424 Potsdam, Germany,
Polymeric graphitic Carbon Nitride can be made from urea under early-Earth conditions, as reported already by Justus Liebig in 1832. It just recently turned out to be a valuable extension to current semiconducting organic materials. This is due to the ease of synthesis, but also due to its extreme chemical stability. The resulting heterogeneous organocatalysts can- among other reactions- chemically activate CO2 or photochemically split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This opens the door to artificial photosynthesis on the base of a sustainable and most abundant polymer base.
I will also present first schemes on generalizing the electronic properties of C3N4 to differently composed C/N-materials, successfully mimicking oxidation enzymes with high conversions and selectivity. The“hybridization” with enzymes via cofactor coupling allows to synthesize more complex molecules photochemically, as shown by the chiral reduction of ketones by light.
Another promising application is in electrodes for batteries and supercapacitors. Here C/N-technology is (foreseeable) able to replace rare metals for electron storage and electrocatalysis. I will exemplify some cases of materials with super-high surface area where new C/N-structures are used to design both the electrode structures as well as the redox shuffling and the catalytic conversions at the materials surfaces.
