Recently,Xu’s group published the latest research work titled“Enhanced photoelectrochemical sensing performance of graphitic carbon nitride by nitrogen vacancies engineering”(Biosens. Bioelectron., 2020, 148, 111802) online inBiosensors and Bioelectronics (Top journal of international engineering science and technology, IF=9.518).Jiangsu University is the first completed department of this paper, and PhD Pengcheng Yan is the first author.

This work used the nitrogen-deficient graphite carbon nitride(ND-g-CN)asa PECactive material to constructe a photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensor for ciprofloxacin detection, due to harm of ciprofloxacin to human body.The ND-g-CN material exhibits two-dimension (2D) thin sheet structure with abundant nitrogen vacancies. The2D thin sheet structure can enable the effective charge separation and transfer, thus dramatically improving the PEC performance. Simultaneously, nitrogen vacancies can serve as charge trap to efficiently inhibit the charge recombination. Furthermore, the synergistic effect of the two can widen the absorption edge and decrease the band gap of ND-g-CN material, resulting in increasing light harvesting and enhancing PEC performance. CIP can be oxidized by the holes of ND-g-CN, thus realizing effective charge separation, which can result in the amplification of the photocurrent. The designed PEC sensor demonstrated a wide detection range and a low detection limit for CIP assay. This strategy broadens the application of graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) material in PEC field and presents a promising potential for the practical application in the environmental monitoring.
　　The research work is financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,, Six Talent Peaks Project of Jiangsu Province,the Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, High-tech Research Key laboratory of Zhenjiang, etc.