From Engineering Application to Environmental Implication:

 

 

Graphitic carbon nitride has emerged as a promising photoreactive (nano)material for water treatment, air purification, antimicrobials, energy storage, electronics, sensing, biomedical engineering, and membrane separation. The (nano)material finds broad engineering applications because of its unique 2D nanostructure, excellent photoreactivity under visible light irradiation, remarkable chemical stability and biocompatibility, and affordable cost in manufacture. With global production and usage, incidental release and inappropriate disposal of graphitic carbon nitride are inevitable, which may raise growing concerns in scientific communities and policy makers, considering the potential adverse environmental and health impacts of this (nano)material. Professor Shuai’s group is currently working to (i) rationally design graphitic carbon nitride with enhanced performance for sustainable water treatment and environmental pathogen control, and (ii) understand the environmental fate and transformation, stability, and toxicity of graphitic carbon nitride nanomaterials. See Professor Shuai’s group website for more details.