Chitosan is a naturally occurring compound and is commercially produced from seafood shells. It has been utilized in the induction of the defense system in both pre and post-harvest fruits and vegetables against fungi, bacteria, viruses, and other abiotic stresses. In addition to that, chitosan effectively improves the physiological properties of plants and also enhances the shelf life of post-harvest produces. Moreover, chitosan treatment regulates several genes in plants, particularly the activation of plant defense signaling pathways. That includes the elicitation of phytoalexins and pathogenesis-related (PR) protein. Besides that, chitosan has been employed in soil as a plant nutrient and has shown great efficacy in combination with other industrial fertilizers without affecting the soil’s beneficial microbes. Furthermore, it is helpful in reducing the fertilizer losses due to its coating ability, which is important in keeping the environmental pollution under check. Based on exhibiting such excellent properties, there is a striking interest in using chitosan biopolymers in agriculture systems. Therefore, our current review has been centered upon the multiple roles of chitosan in horticultural crops that could be useful in future crop improvement programs.

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This work incorporates a variety of conjugated donor-acceptor (DA) co-monomers such as 2,6-diaminopurine (DP) into the structure of a polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) backbone using a unique nanostructure co-polymerization strategy and examines its photocatalytic activity performance in the field of photocatalytic CO2 reduction to CO and H2 under visible light irradiation. The as-synthesized samples were successfully analyzed using different characterization methods to explain their electronic and optical properties, crystal phase, microstructure, and their morphology that influenced the performance due to the interactions between the PCN and the DPco-monomer. Based on the density functional theory (DFT) calculation result, pure PCN and CNU-DP15.0 trimers (interpreted as incorporation of the co-monomer at two different positions) were extensively evaluated and exhibited remarkable structural optimization without the inclusion of any symmetry constraints (the non-modified sample derived from urea, named as CNU), and their optical and electronic properties were also manipulated to control occupation of their respective highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO). Also, co-polymerization of the donor–acceptor 2,6-diamino-purine co-monomer with PCN influenced the chemical affinities, polarities, and acid–base functions of the PCN, remarkably enhancing the photocatalytic activity for the production of CO and H2 from CO2 by 15.02-fold compared than that of the parental CNU, while also improving the selectivity.

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