Preparation of graphite-like carbon nitride nanoflake film with strong fluorescent and electrochemiluminescent activity

The preparation, characterization, fluorescence (FL) and electrochemiluminescence (ECL) of graphite-like carbon nitride nanoflake particles (g-C(3)N(4) NFPs) and nanoflake films (g-C(3)N(4) NFFs) have been reported. Highly water-dispersible g-C(3)N(4) NFPs with a height of ~5 to 35 nm and a lateral dimension of ~40 to 220 nm have been extracted from bulk g-C(3)N(4) materials by chemical oxidation. New, stable and defined g-C(3)N(4) NFFs can be easily obtained by drying NFPs on certain hydrophilic substrates such as glass or electrode surfaces. Both g-C(3)N(4) NFPs and g-C(3)N(4) NFFs have good FL activities, i.e. they can give strong blue light (435 nm) emission under UV light (365 nm) excitation. The as-prepared g-C(3)N(4) NFFs on a glassy carbon electrode exhibit strong non-surface state ECL activity in the presence of reductive-oxidative coreactants, including dissolved oxygen (O(2)), hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) and peroxydisulfate (S(2)O(8)(2-)) and give rise to blue light emission (435 nm), which is the same as the wavelength of FL. The non-surface state ECL mechanisms of the g-C(3)N(4) NFF-coreactant systems have been studied and discussed in detail.