Photothermal catalysis of waste plastics into propionic acid and hydrogen via Ni single-atom site isolation effect.

ABSTRACT: Currently, catalytic recycling of polyethylene (PE) into high-value chemicals using solar energy often faces poor product selectivity and low efficiency. This is mainly due to the difficulty in effectively controlling the intermediates during PE photoreforming and the long-standing challenge of inefficient charge dynamics. Here, we present a solar-driven photothermal catalytic approach for the selective conversion of PE waste into propionic acid and hydrogen under ambient conditions. Atomically dispersed Ni sites supported on CeO₂ (Ni_SA/CeO₂) achieve a propionic acid yield of 331 μmol h^-1 with 94.8% selectivity in the photothermal reaction. This performance is 1.6 times higher than that of catalysts supported by Ni clusters (Ni_NP/CeO

SUBMITTER: Yue S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12232611 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature