Citric acid-modified graphite-like carbon nitride materials (GCN-zCA) were synthetized by thermal co-polymerization of dicyandiamide with different amounts of citric acid (z = between 5 and 25 mg). The resulting materials presented surface porosity, defective polymeric structure, and enhanced visible light absorption in the 450−700 nm range, attributed to the existence of mid-gap states and n-π* electronic transitions. All the modified catalysts presented high selectivity (>99 %) towards the conversion of p-anisyl alcohol into p-anisaldehyde under visible-LED irradiation, the best performing photocatalyst (GCN-20CA) reaching 63 % yield (contrasting with 22 % obtained with bulk GCN) after 240 min reaction. GCN-20CA was also applied for hydrogen generation from water splitting. The modified material practically duplicated the hydrogen production when compared to bulk GCN (75 and 44 μmol H₂ evolved in three hours, respectively), by using platinum nanoparticles as co-catalyst and EDTA as sacrificial electron donor. Moreover, p-anisyl alcohol was successfully used as sacrificial agent for water splitting, with simultaneous production of p-anisaldehyde and H₂. Reusability tests showed that GCN-20CA remained stable in a series of consecutive runs both for p-anisaldehyde synthesis and hydrogen production.

柠檬酸改性的类石墨氮化碳材料（GCN- z CA）是通过双氰胺与不同量的柠檬酸（z = 5至25 mg）进行热共聚而合成的。所得材料在450-700 nm范围内表现出表面孔隙率，不良的聚合物结构和增强的可见光吸收，这归因于存在中间能隙态和n-π *电子跃迁。所有的改性催化剂都表现出高的选择性（> 99％），可以将对-茴香醇转化为对位-茴香醛在可见光LED的照射下，反应240分钟后，性能最佳的光催化剂（GCN-20CA）达到63％的收率（相比之下，本体GCN获得22％）。GCN-20CA还用于水分解制氢。与本体的GCN（分别在三个小时内释放出75和44μmolH ₂）相比，通过使用铂纳米粒子作为助催化剂和EDTA作为牺牲电子供体，改性材料实际上复制了氢气的产生。此外，对茴香醇成功地用作水分解的牺牲剂，同时生产了对茴香醛和H ₂。可重用性测试表明，GCN-20CA在一系列连续运行中均保持稳定对茴香醛的合成和制氢。