Boosted Photoreforming of Plastic Waste <i>via</i> Defect-Rich NiPS<sub>3</sub> Nanosheets
Shuai Zhang, Haobo Li, Lei Wang, Jiandang Liu, Guijie Liang, Kenneth Davey, Jingrun Ran, Shi‐Zhang Qiao
Abstract
Sustainable conversion of plastic waste to mitigate environmental threats and reclaim waste value is important. Ambient-condition photoreforming is practically attractive to convert waste to hydrogen (H 2 ); however, it has poor performance because of mutual constraint between proton reduction and substrate oxidation. Here, we realize a cooperative photoredox using defect-rich chalcogenide nanosheet-coupled photocatalysts, e.g., d-NiPS 3 /CdS, to give an ultrahigh H 2 evolution of ∼40 mmol g cat –1 h –1 and organic acid yield up to 78 μmol within 9 h, together with excellent stability beyond 100 h in photoreforming of commercial waste plastic poly(lactic acid) and poly(ethylene terephthalate). Significantly, these metrics represent one of the most efficient plastic photoreforming reported. In situ ultrafast spectroscopic studies confirm a charge transfer-mediated reaction mechanism in which d-NiPS 3 rapidly extracts electrons from CdS to boost H 2 evolution, favoring hole-dominated substrate oxidation to improve overall efficiency. This work opens practical avenues for converting plastic waste into fuels and chemicals.