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Strategies for Electrochemical Recycling of Plastic Polyethylene Terephthalate‐Derived Ethylene Glycol Into High‐Value Chemicals
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This paper reviews new methods for recycling PET plastic waste, the most common plastic in bottles and packaging, using electricity from renewable sources. By converting PET-derived chemicals into high-value products through electrocatalysis, this approach could help reduce both plastic pollution and microplastic contamination in the environment.
Abstract Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is considered as one of the most consumed plastics. The excellent mechanical properties and chemical stability ensure the wide utilization of PET plastics for beverage bottles, food packaging, and textile fibers. Unfortunately, concurrent marine plastic pollution and microplastic problem have resulted in serious challenge in modern human society. Currently, the mainstream PET recycling technology is mechanical recycling, but physical shredding can only be downgraded recycled PET waste to low value‐added products, followed by a loss of more than 30% of carbon sources. Alternatively, electrocatalysis driven by the renewable electricity has recently provided a sustainable route to recycle waste PET plastics and form high value‐added chemicals. By precisely engineering electrocatalyst materials and electrocatalytic modes, some important chemicals synthesized involved different electrochemical pathways are reported. In this Perspective, we elucidated the progress of electrocatalytic recycling of waste PET‐derived ethylene glycol (EG) for selective electrosynthesis of high value‐added products. Electrocatalytic pathways and corresponding mechanisms are discussed in detail. Moreover, the examples in how electrocatalysts design and electrocatalytic modes engineering change the chemisorption property and products selectivity have been described. Lastly, a brief conclusion and explore the future prospect in this area is explored.
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