biostudies-literatureYao LNational Science Foundation885https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC8850602biostudies-literatureUnknown13(1)The evergrowing plastic production and the caused concerns of plastic waste accumulation have stimulated the need for waste plastic chemical recycling/valorization. Current methods suffer from harsh reaction conditions and long reaction time. Herein we demonstrate a non-thermal plasma-assisted method for rapid hydrogenolysis of polystyrene (PS) at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure, generating high yield (>40 wt%) of C₁-C₃ hydrocarbons and ethylene being the dominant gas product (Selectivity of ethylene, S_C2H4 > 70%) within ~10 min. The fast reaction kinetics is attributed to highly active hydrogen plasma, which can effectively break bonds in polymer and initiate hydrogenolysis under mild condition. Efficient hydrogenolysis of post-consumer PS matNature communicationsNon-thermal plasma-assisted rapid hydrogenolysis of polystyrene to high yield ethylene.PMC88506022132178Yao LChuang SSCLi JMiyoshi TKing JMa JWu DPeng ZXie RfalseNon-thermal plasma-assisted rapid hydrogenolysis of polystyrene to high yield ethylene.The evergrowing plastic production and the caused concerns of plastic waste accumulation have stimulated the need for waste plastic chemical recycling/valorization. Current methods suffer from harsh reaction conditions and long reaction time. Herein we demonstrate a non-thermal plasma-assisted method for rapid hydrogenolysis of polystyrene (PS) at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure, generating high yield (>40 wt%) of C₁-C₃ hydrocarbons and ethylene being the dominant gas product (Selectivity of ethylene, S_C2H4 > 70%) within ~10 min. The fast reaction kinetics is attributed to highly active hydrogen plasma, which can effectively break bonds in polymer and initiate hydrogenolysis under mild condition. Efficient hydrogenolysis of post-consumer PS mat2022-01-01T00:00:00Z2022 Feb2025-04-21T23:16:02.585Z2025-04-05T19:05:15.507ZS-EPMC88506023517317710.1038/s41467-022-28563-7