Hydrothermal Synthesis of Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanocluster and Study of its Photoluminescence Properties

In the present scenario of modern urbanization there is an increasing demand of different opto-electronic devices that includes light emitting diodes, photo conductors or many others. From this point of view finding a cheap material with high luminescence efficiency is of extreme important. Along with possessing high radiative recombination efficiency the optoelectronic material should be cost effective as well and at the same time it should be synthesized with high yield. Keeping this in mind, this study presents the synthesis of fractal-like graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) nanostructures via a, low-temperature hydrothermal method. The synthesized material was characterized using various techniques where X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed proper phase formation, while field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) revealed its fractal like morphology. UV-Vis reflectance spectra, along with the Kubelka-Munk plot, confirmed that the band gap of the material is around 3 eV and thus comes within the violet-blue range. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy provided insights into the different vibrational energy levels present in the sample. Photoluminescence (PL) analysis shows strong PL signal at 431 nm and thus corresponds to band to band transition. The findings indicate this fractal-like GCN has the potential to be used as optoelectronic device.