Application of carbon materials in photocatalytic removal of heavy metal pollution

Photocatalytic technology demonstrates significant potential in heavy metal pollution remediation. However, conventional semiconductors suffer from critical limitations including poor photostability, narrow spectral response range and high carrier recombination rate. Carbon-based materials, leveraging their tunable energy band structures, strong adsorption capacity and anti-photo corrosion properties, synergistically enhance heavy metal adsorption, carrier separation efficiency and photodegradation resistance when integrated with semiconductors through heterojunction systems. This paper reviewed the characteristics and advantages of graphene-based carbon materials and graphite-phase carbon nitride, systematically summarizing the research progress on the photocatalytic degradation of heavy metal pollution by these two types of materials. Furthermore, it delved into the related degradation mechanism and reaction mechanism. Finally, the challenges faced by carbon materials in photocatalytic applications were analyzed and their future development prospects were envisioned, aiming to promote the application of carbon materials in photocatalysis.