The present study evaluated the effect of convective drying on the physicochemical, functional, and microstructural properties of the powders of leaves of Agave angustifolia Haw (agave espadin) and Agave rhodacantha Trel (agave mexicano) at temperatures of 70, 90, and 110 °C. The leaves correspond to the agro-industrial waste generated by the mezcal industry. The results indicate that convective drying at a temperature of 110 °C induces the greatest microstructural modification of the powders and improves their functional properties compared to thermal treatments at 70 and 90 °C. The obtained powders in the present investigation show important contents of dietary fiber in a range of 45.53 ± 0.07 to 55.31 ± 1.60 g/100 g. According to the results of physicochemical analysis, the obtained powders show high storage stability, pointing out that the employment of convective drying in the processing of agave leaves at high temperatures is an emerging tool for the obtention of waste-derived powders with high impact in the development of future functional foods, while contributing to the mitigation of the environmental impact of the mezcal industry.

This research reports the development of photocatalytic active composites for hydrogen evolution obtained through high-energy mechanical milling of a mixture of the organic semiconductor g-C₃N₄ (CN) and the metal–organic framework ZIF-67. These composites, called CNZ-x (X = mass proportion of ZIF-67), were characterized using powder XRD, which showed that the crystalline phases of both the g-C₃N₄ and ZIF-67 precursors are present in the composites. SEM was used to determine the morphology, revealing that the ZIF-67 octahedral particles adhere to the surface of the CN sheets due to the intimate interfacial contact induced by high-energy mechanical grinding. The results of the photocatalytic evolution of H₂ indicate that the CNZ-50 composite produced 261 μmol g⁻¹ of H₂, which is higher than the 229.5 and 124 μmol g⁻¹ produced by the precursors ZIF-67 and CN, respectively. The higher efficiency in H₂ evolution is due to the composite having better electron-hole separation than the precursor materials.