Tandem Chemical Depolymerization and Photoreforming of Waste PET Plastic to High-Value-Added Chemicals

Photoreforming of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) wastes to high-value-added chemicals is an emerging and promising approach. Nonetheless, a major obstacle is the harsh alkaline pretreatment (COH– = 5–10 M) to depolymerize PET, resulting in a surge in processing costs and also posing great challenges to subsequent photocatalytic devices, catalysts, and photocatalytic efficiency. Herein, we introduce a tandem process of chemical depolymerization and photoreforming of waste PET plastics. Depolymerization of PET to monomers is achieved through an intramolecular hydrolysis mechanism on a binuclear zinc catalyst under mild conditions (COH– ≤ 0.1 M and T ≤ 60 °C). Compared with the traditional harsh alkali…

• CP
  China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

  Award: 2023T160369