Zinc Oxide-Graphitic Carbon Nitride Composites: Synthesis, Properties, and Application Scopes in Environmental...

Environmental pollution constitutes a significant threat to ecosystems and human health, necessitating advanced solutions for its mitigation. This review emphasizes the development and application of ZZnO-g-C₃N₄ composites as emerging photocatalysts for environmental remediation. Conventional wastewater treatment methods, although widely used, suffer limitations like low efficacy, high costs, and secondary waste generation, etc. This has led to a growing interest in heterogeneous photocatalysis, offering high efficiency, eco-friendliness, and affordability. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop innovative nanocomposites with distinctive features such as higher absorption of visible light, efficient charge separation, and excellent stability for the decontamination of pollutants. The coupling of ZnO with g-C₃N₄ composite could enhance visible-light absorption and promote charge separation, increasing photocatalytic performance. This contribution focuses on environmental challenges and the significance of photocatalysis in the elimination of environmental pollutants. It includes discussions on properties, methods for improving photoactivity, synthesis techniques, and applications of ZnO, g-C₃N₄, and ZnO-g-C₃N₄ composite materials. Also, this review covers recent advancements in improving the efficiency of these advanced nanocomposites in breaking down organic pollutants in wastewater. It is anticipated that this article will inspire the conceptualization and advancement of different ZnO-g-C₃N₄ composites for broader applications in materials design, photocatalysis, and water remediation.