C/N- Materials for Artificial Photosynthesis, Heterogeneous Organocatalysis and Green Electronics

Some recent observations made polymeric graphitic Carbon Nitride (ideally C3N4)n a nice extension to current semiconducting organic system. This is due to the ease of synthesis, but also due to its extreme chemical stability. Made from urea under early-Earth conditions, as reported already by Justus Liebig in 1832, it just recently turned out to be a novel catalyst whichamong other reactionscan even chemically split CO2 or photochemically turn water into hydrogen and oxygen. This opens the door to artificial photosynthesis on the base of a sustainable and most abundant substrate base. I will introduce the basics of artificial photosynthesis, go to required band structures and electronic schemes and couple that with chemical reactivity to catalyze both water oxidation and water reduction. I will also present first schemes on chemical reactions where the electronic properties of C3N4 are generalized to other reactions, successfully mimicking oxidation enzymes with high conversions and selectivity. Copolymerization is here used to adjust electronic properties and coupled reactivity. In the second part of the talk, I will talk about the polycondensation of ionic liquid monomers and polymers to N-doped carbons, which can be understood as resin-like organic metals. Conductivity results as well as first model reactions as catalytic active electrodes are presented.