Scientometric Assessment and Mini Review of Graphitic Carbon Nitride (g-C3N4) for Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction: An Evidence of Progress

Abstract

The scientific community globally have sought for alternative energy generation approaches and environmental remediation techniques to address the changes in consumption patterns of fossil fuel. Semiconductor photocatalysis has been reported as a potential technique to address the aforementioned challenge with graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) identified as one of the novel nanomaterial exploration and applications in diverse fields. Many reviews have been reported on g-C₃N₄ focusing on photocatalysis principles, preparation techniques, photocatalytic enhancement strategies and various photocatalytic applications. However, in this study, a scientometric assessment was conducted to detail the research status on g-C₃N₄ semiconductor for photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ and visualization of the future research trends. The scientometric review covers 504 published articles retrieved from the SCOPUS database online spanning from 2010 to May 2021. The articles were analysed using the VOSviewer mapping tool software using 10 scientometric indices. The results show 461 authors globally contributed to the topic with 333 articles from China and progressive increase in published articles in diverse journals from 1 in 2010 to 88 in May 2021. Collaborations exist between authors and co-authors from various countries and institutions. The new trending areas for g-C₃N₄ photocatalysts include nanomedicine, biomedical systems, toxicological industries, food safety monitoring and mathematics.