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Melon-based carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is a promising metal-free and sustainable material for photocatalytic water splitting. In principle, pristine carbon nitride only exhibits moderate activity due to insufficient visible light absorption and fast charge recombination. Enhancement of the solar-to-energy conversion efficiency of g-C3N4 depends on the rational design of its morphology and electronic structure. Herein, we report the self-assembly of g-C3N4 nanotubes by co-polycondensation of urea and oxamide with their similar structure and reactivity to optimize the textural and electronic properties. Unlike pristine g-C3N4, the obtained copolymers exhibit clear optical absorption above 465 nm, which is ascribed to the n → π* electron transition involving lone pairs of the edge nitrogen atoms of the heptazine units. Besides, the charge carrier mobility was also optimized in the spatially separated nanotube structure, which …