In Situ Construction of an Intramolecular Donor–Acceptor Conjugated Copolymer via Terephthalic Acid Derived from Plastic Waste for Photocatalysis of Plastic to Hydrogen Peroxide

Photocatalysis offers promising technology for converting plastic waste into valuable chemicals. However, fully digging out the embedded value to incentivize the valorization of plastic waste is still a challenge. Herein, we first design an intramolecular donor–acceptor (D–A) structure by introducing the terephthalic acid (PTA) derived from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste into P-doped g-C 3 N 4 (CN-P). Impressively, CN-P-PTA exhibits higher activity in the photocatalysis of PET to H 2 O 2 compared with CN-P. The superior performance is attributed to the prolonged photogenerated carrier lifetime and the enhanced delocalization of π electrons. Moreover, single-particle PL quenching and DFT calculations reveal that PTA and CN-P can form an intimate interface via π–π conjugation, which facilitates the flow of photoexcited electrons from PTA to CN-P.