Atomically thick two-dimensional materials have been increasingly attracting research interest not only due to their promising applications in a range of functional devices but also to their theoretical value to unraveling the catalytic electron transfer process within a simplified scenario. In this work, the monoatomic-thick dot-sized graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) has been synthesized and intimately contacted to the basal plane of the graphene sheet to form the monolayer g-C₃N₄ dots@graphene (MTCG). The electrocatalytic activity of the MTCG in the oxygen reduction reaction is found to rival that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst in terms of the catalytic current density and half-wave potential. The density functional theory calculations confirm the catalytic improvement of the MTCG originates from a higher efficiency for the reduction of OOH⁻ than that of the g-C₃N₄ alone; therefore, the current work is expected to provide new insights in developing next-generation, highly efficient catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction.

In this work, we report an N-doped porous carbon monolith used for the first time as a catalyst for the cycloaddition of CO₂ to cyclic carbonates. It acts as an efficient, single-component, metal-, solvent- and halogen-free catalyst for the formation of chloropropene carbonate from CO₂ and epichlorohydrin. The N-doped carbon monolith AA-950 significantly exhibited a high CO₂ capture capacity of 16.20 mmol g⁻¹ (298 K and 20 bar) and high conversion of epoxides. A catalytic mechanism has also been proposed based on the basis of DFT calculations. Our findings may trigger interest in the studies of carbon materials for CO₂ capture and conversion performance.