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Enhanced Light Absorption and Electron Transfer over Amorphous ZnCdS Coupled with MXene Cocatalyst for Efficient Photocatalytic PET Degradation and Hydrogen Evolution
Summary
Researchers developed an amorphous ZnCdS/MXene photocatalyst that degrades PET plastic under mild conditions (40 degrees C, 1M NaOH) while simultaneously generating hydrogen fuel and valuable chemicals like formate and acetate. This approach converts plastic waste into renewable energy and chemical feedstocks, offering a dual environmental benefit: reducing microplastic accumulation in ecosystems while recovering economic value from polymers that currently persist indefinitely in water and soil.
Photocatalytic reforming of plastic pollutants into renewable hydrogen fuel and value-added hydrocarbons represents a promising environmental remediation strategy. However, conventional approaches for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) degradation require energy-intensive pre-hydrolysis under harsh conditions (≥ 10 M NaOH, > 60 °C), which accelerate catalyst deactivation and secondary pollution. Herein, a low-temperature wet-chemical method prepare a series of AZCS/MXene photocatalysts were successfully synthetic for hydrogen product integrated with degradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Owing to the amorphous ZnCdS breaking long-range atomic order that induce dipole moments and generate strong electric fields within the particles which facilitates charge separation and transfer. The Ti3C2Tx MXene provide the enhanced separation ability of photocarriers. Here, the best photocatalytic hydrogen of AZCS@M6 evolution activity (1845.65 µmol g−1 h−1) and the selective generation of high value chemicals: (i) Formate (164.77 µmol), (ii) Glyoxal (807.70 µmol), (iii) Acetate (272.8 µmol). This work offers new solutions to energy problem and microplastic pollution under mild conditions (1 M NaOH, 40 °C).