Trash to Treasure: Photoreforming of Plastic Waste into Commodity Chemicals and Hydrogen over MoS 2 -Tipped CdS Nanorods

Plastic valorization presents a significantly untapped opportunity to address environmental issues while creating the necessary economic push for a circular carbon economy. Compared with the conventional routes for processing plastics (e.g., pyrolysis and gasification), a photoreforming strategy, namely, photocatalytic plastic oxidation paired with water splitting, aims to achieve plastic valorization into commodity chemicals under mild conditions while offering hydrogen fuels. Here, we implement MoS2-tipped CdS nanorod photocatalysts in an aqueous medium to reform pretreated plastics that range from polyesters (e.g., polylactic acid (PLA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)) to polyolefins (e.g.,…

• MO
  Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China

  Award: 2021YFC2103600
• NS
  Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province

  Award: BK20210382
• CU
  Central University Basic Research Fund of China