Photocatalytic conversion of biomass to value-added chemicals with the utilization of solar energy is one of the most attractive strategies to achieve biorefinery and carbon neutrality with renewable and sustainable resources. Following the principle of circular economy, the application of steel converter slag, a by-product from steel making industry, as inexpensive photocatalyst has been explored due to its high content of iron oxides. In the steel industry, CO<sub>2</sub> emissions are extremely high, and as well as the development of coke-free steelmaking processes, there is a strong demand to develop technologies that promote carbon recycling and contribute to overall carbon neutrality. This work demonstratres the contrcution of heterojunction between oxygen-doped graphitic carbon nitride and artificial converter slag (OCN/artCS) as efficient photocalysts for conversion of sugar to lactic acid under simulated solar light irradation. The OCN/artCS photocalysts were simply prepared by the thermal polymerization of the mechanical mixtures of dicyanamide (DA), oxalic acid (OA) and artCS at 550 <sup>○</sup>C for two hours. By using the constant mass of DA and OA, the weight ratios of DA-OA and artCS were varied as 0%, 1%, 5% and 10% with the sample notation of OCN, OCN/1%artCS, OCN/5%artCS and OCN/10%artCS, respectively. After that, the structural, morphological and optical properties of the products were characterized and their photocatalytic performance were evaluated. Experimental results demonstrated that the photocatalytic performance for lactic acid production was greatly enhanced after creation of OCN/artCS heterojuction, possibly due to the effective separation of photogenerated charge carriers. At the optimal content of artCS in OCN/artCS composties, the OCN/5%artCS photocatalyst delivered 100% glucose conversion and 90% lactic acid yield within 60 minutes. It is expected that this work can be a platform for utilization of converter slag to produce the cost-effective photocatalysts for conversion of biomass to high-value chemicals and the other photocatalytic applications.

Oxygen-doped graphitic carbon nitride/artificial converter slag composite for solar light driven photocatalytic conversion of sugar

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