Preparation of graphite-like carbon nitride nanoflake film with strong fluorescent and electrochemiluminescent activityElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c2nr32248j

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. 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.