Highly selective upcycling of plastic mixture waste by microwave-assisted catalysis over Zn/b-ZnO.

ABSTRACT: 7 billion of 9.2 billion tons of plastic produced becomes waste while conventional catalytic plastic recycling methods are vulnerable with degraded performance and intensive energy input. Here, a hybrid Zn/b-ZnO catalyst, together with the specially-designed microwave reaction system, has achieved fast plastic waste upgrading under atmospheric pressure without using H₂. Bifunctional ZnO acts as a microwave absorber and substrate catalyst, and in-situ formed Zn clusters promote C-C bond cleavage and nearly 100% upcycle landfilled plastic mixtures into lubricant base oil precursors and monomers. Unprecedented turnover number (250 g_plastic g^-1_catalyst) of plastic depolymerisation and long-time stability over 50 successive cycles have been demonstrat

SUBMITTER: Zhao J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11836401 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature