Photocatalytic Conversion of Waste Plastics into C <sub>2</sub> Fuels under Simulated Natural Environment Conditions
Xingchen Jiao, Kai Zheng, Qingxia Chen, Xiaodong Li, Yamin Li, Weiwei Shao, Jiaqi Xu, Junfa Zhu, Yang Pan, Yongfu Sun, Yi Xie
Abstract
Abstract Reported here is the first highly selective conversion of various waste plastics into C 2 fuels under simulated natural environment conditions by a sequential photoinduced C−C cleavage and coupling pathway, where single‐use bags, disposable food containers, food wrap films, and their main components of polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyvinyl chloride can be photocatalytically transformed into CH 3 COOH without using sacrificial agents. As an example, polyethylene is photodegraded 100 % into CO 2 within 40 h by single‐unit‐cell thick Nb 2 O 5 layers, while the produced CO 2 is further photoreduced to CH 3 COOH. Various methods and experiments disclose that O 2 and . OH radicals trigger the oxidative C−C cleavage of polyethylene to form CO 2 , while other investigations show that the yielded CH 3 COOH stems from CO 2 photoreduction by C−C coupling of . COOH intermediates. This two‐step plastic‐to‐fuel conversion may help to simultaneously address the white pollution crisis and harvest highly valuable multicarbon fuels in natural environments.