Electrocatalytic Upcycling of Plastic Waste to Organonitrogen Chemicals via Intercepting Carbon Intermediates
Hongxing Kang, Dong He, Xingxu Yan, Melanie Weed, Jingtong Chai, Christopher Turchiano, Xiaoqing Pan, Xiangheng Xiao, Jing Gu
Abstract
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Transforming and repurposing plastic waste into valuable commodity chemical products is a sustainable strategy, which is beneficial for not only managing plastic waste but also fostering a circular plastic economy. Herein, we reported an electrocatalytic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic waste upcycling to organonitrogen chemicals strategy over a MnO 2 (MnO 2 /CFP) catalyst. The MnO 2 /CFP catalyst is capable of mildly oxidizing PET plastic-waste-derived ethylene glycol (EG) to electrophilic carbon intermediates under near-neutral conditions, in which the in situ formed carbon intermediates were stabilized and further attacked by nitrogenous nucleophiles, leading to the successful formation of amides. As a result, formamide (FE and yield up to 10.86% and 0.030 mmol cm –2 h –1, respectively) was produced as the primary C–N coupling product with EG and ammonia (NH 3 ) as C and N sources, respectively. Furthermore, amides were synthesized with real-world PET plastic waste as the C source, indicating the potential practical application of this proof-of-concept work.