A novel hydrogen-bonded organic framework/g-C3N4 heterojunction for improved sulfadiazine photodegradation via effective electron transfer

As one of the most widely used antibiotics, sulfamethoxazole (SDZ) poses significant health risks to the ecological environment by causing harm to aquatic organisms and accelerating evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Metalloporphyrin hydrogen-bonded organic framework (PFC-72) demonstrates promising prospect in the field of photocatalysis owing to its high specific surface area, wide light harvesting range, stable physical and chemical properties, and semiconductor properties. Herein, we constructed an efficient photocatalyst PFC-72/g-C₃N₄ by one-step solvent thermal method for photocatalytic degradation of SDZ. When doping content of PFC-72 is 10 %, photocatalytic degradation efficiency of SDZ can reach 96.82 % after 120 min of visible light irradiation, and PFC-72/g-C₃N₄ exhibits excellent structural stability. The photocatalytic efficiency of SDZ is improved by increasing specific surface area, enhancing absorption range of visible light, and inhibiting recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. In addition, photodegradation pathways of SDZ in PFC-72/g-C₃N₄ was determined by UPLC-MS/MS analysis. Finally, dominant reactive species (·O₂⁻, h_VB⁺, and ·OH) in the system were detected through free radical masking experiments, and photocatalytic mechanism was clarified. This work investigates a novel and efficient porphyrin-HOF based photocatalyst, which has great potential for degradation of SDZ.