An international team of experts undertaking fundamental research has developed a way of using polyethylene waste (PE) as a feedstock and converted it into valuable chemicals, via light-driven photocatalysis.
“We have upcycled polyethylene plastic waste into ethylene and propionic acid with high selectivity using atomically dispersed metal catalysts,” said Professor Qiao.
“An oxidation-coupled room-temperature photocatalysis method was used to convert the waste into valuable products with high selectivity. Nearly 99% of the liquid product is propionic acid, alleviating the problems associated with complex products that then require separation. Renewable solar energy was used rather than industrial processes that consume fossil fuel and emit greenhouse gases.”
“This waste-to-value strategy is primarily implemented with four components, including plastic waste, water, sunlight and non-toxic photocatalysts that harness solar energy and boost the reaction. A typical photocatalyst is titanium dioxide with isolated palladium atoms on its surface.”
Most of the plastics used today end up being discarded and accumulated in landfills. PE is the most widely used plastic in the world. Daily food packaging, shopping bags and reagent bottles are all made from PE. It is also the largest proportion of all plastic waste and primarily ends up in landfills, posing a threat to global environment and ecology.
2023-12-08 17:41:03
Post from phys.org rnrn