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Piezo-photocatalytic reforming of end-of-life plastic waste into syngas over defective BaxSr1-xTiO3-y solid solutions
Summary
Scientists developed a new way to break down plastic waste from bottles and clothing using sunlight and vibrations, turning it into useful gases that can be made into fuel. This process works 20 times better than using light alone and could help solve our plastic pollution problem by recycling waste plastics back into valuable products. While this technology is still being developed in the lab, it offers hope for reducing the massive amounts of plastic waste that harm our environment and potentially our health.
Piezo-photocatalytic upcycling of plastic waste into added-value hydrocarbon fuel leverages mechanical and solar energy to reintegrate end-of-life plastics into the carbon cycle. This work reports a process that converts PET-derived ethylene glycol (EG) into syngas under ambient conditions using defect-engineered Ba x Sr 1−x TiO 3−y (BSTO) catalysts. A three-stage process produces graded oxygen-vacancy and Ti 3+ surface concentrations. Combination with optimized band structure yields catalysts of strong piezo-photo responses. Photoelectrochemical measurements confirm accelerated light-induced charge separation and transfer, while Kelvin probe force microscopy and DFT simulations corroborate defect-amplified piezoelectric polarization. Using this catalyst, EG solutions derived from PET microplastics and textile fibers demonstrate selective syngas compositions, confirming applicability to real-world PET waste. Mechanistic studies show that piezo-photo-reforming of EG achieves respective H 2 and CO evolution rates of 1062 and 646 μmol/g/h, >90% syngas selectivity, and an H 2 /CO ratio (~1.6), representing nearly a 20-fold increase in gas yield over photocatalysis alone. Control experiments demonstrate that catalyst composition and activation govern both catalytic activity and syngas ratio tunability. In situ ATR-FTIR identifies surface formate as a key intermediate, while 1 H NMR detects glycolic acid/glycolate in the liquid phase. DFT calculations indicate that lattice-oxygen-assisted C–C bond cleavage is significantly promoted within the reaction pathways. An advanced defect-engineered Ba x Sr 1−x TiO 3−y (BSTO) catalyst couples light and mechanical energy to convert end-of-life polyester textiles and PET microplastics into syngas under ambient conditions. Its defect-rich surface enhances charge separation and C–C bond cleavage, producing selective H 2 /CO mixtures as feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel production and closing the plastic carbon loop. • Strategic solid-solution design with defect engineering optimizes piezo-photocatalysts. • Defect gradients accelerate charge separation and transfer, and amplify piezoelectric polarization • Selective and efficient syngas production was achieved from ethylene glycol (EG) derived from microplastics and textile fibers, and laboratory-grade PET via piezo-photocatalysis. • In situ ATR-FTIR and ¹H NMR reveal formate and glycolate as key intermediates, while DFT calculations demonstrate lattice-oxygen-assisted C–C bond cleavage as the dominant reaction pathway.