Waste-to-Energy Conversion on Graphitic Carbon Nitride: Utilizing the Transformation of Macrolide Antibiotics To Enhance Photoinduced Hydrogen Production

Photocatalytic H₂ evolution is usually from pure water or water with sacrificial agents. Surprisingly, it has been found that the presence of poisonous macrolide antibiotics in an aqueous medium for catalytic H₂ evolution enhances the H₂ yield while itself being degraded, using Pt/graphitic carbon nitride (Pt/g-C₃N₄) under visible light (λ > 420 nm). Hence, a promising method that addresses the issues of energy shortage and environmental pollution is proposed. Among macrolide antibiotics, Roxithromycin (Rox) is so effective in facilitating the decomposition of water that it can be acted as a model in this paper to explain phenomenon as mentioned above. Furthermore, the mechanism of the reaction is also explored and 13 intermediates of Rox are identified by ultraperformance liquid chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry. The degradation pathway of Rox is proposed on the basis of the identified intermediates. In the whole process, both energy generation and pollutant control can be achieved simultaneously. Thereby, this represents a surprising waste-to-energy conversion process.