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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Light-Driven Polymer Recycling to Monomers and Small Molecules
ClearLight-driven polymer recycling to monomers and small molecules
Researchers reviewed how sunlight can be harnessed to chemically break down plastic waste into reusable molecules, offering a lower-energy alternative to heat-based recycling methods like pyrolysis. While still limited to certain plastic types, light-driven recycling shows promise for converting hard-to-recycle plastics into valuable chemical building blocks.
Highly Efficient Photothermal‐Catalytic Depolymerization of Polyester Fiber Enabled by a Phosphotungstate‐Based Palladium Single‐Atom Catalyst
A photothermal-catalytic process was developed for efficiently depolymerizing specific plastic types using light energy, converting them back to monomers or small molecules. This approach offers a sustainable pathway for chemical plastic recycling that reduces energy demand compared to conventional thermochemical methods.
State of the art in the photochemical degradation of (micro)plastics: from fundamental principles to catalysts and applications
This review summarizes research on the photochemical degradation of plastics and microplastics into value-added products and intermediates via photocatalysis. The study covers fundamental principles and catalytic approaches for breaking down plastic pollutants that are otherwise difficult to degrade in the environment.
Excavating the Potential of Photo‐ and Electroupcycling Platforms Toward a Sustainable Future for Waste Plastics
This review examines photo- and electrocatalytic methods for breaking down waste plastics into valuable small-molecule chemicals, offering a more efficient and less polluting alternative to conventional recycling. By converting plastic polymers rather than simply remelting or landfilling them, these upcycling pathways could help reduce the volume of plastic waste that eventually fragments into environmental microplastics.
Complete Degradation of a Conjugated Polymer into Green Upcycling Products by Sunlight in Air
Sunlight in air completely degraded a conjugated polymer used in flexible electronics into small molecules that could be converted into useful chemicals, demonstrating a photochemical recycling approach that avoids thermal energy inputs and produces recoverable value-added products rather than waste, offering a sustainable end-of-life pathway for specialty plastics.
Light-driven degradation of microplastics: Mechanisms, technologies, and future directions
This review examines photocatalytic technologies for breaking down microplastics using light-driven chemical processes. Researchers found that photocatalysts can potentially mineralize microplastics into carbon dioxide and water, with some approaches also enabling recovery of useful chemical products. The study highlights light-driven degradation as a promising direction for microplastic remediation, though challenges around efficiency and scalability remain to be addressed.
Photo-Initiated Depolymerization of Consumer Poly(methyl methacrylate): Chlorine Not Required
Researchers developed a low-temperature chemical recycling method for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) that uses UV illumination at 120-180 degrees C to depolymerize the acrylic polymer back to monomer, eliminating the need for chlorine and drastically reducing the 350-400 degrees C temperatures required by conventional thermal recycling.
Visible Light–Driven Cascade Carbon–Carbon Bond Scission for Organic Transformations and Plastics Recycling
Researchers developed a visible light-driven vanadium photocatalyst system that selectively cleaves carbon-carbon bonds in unactivated alcohols and can depolymerise hydroxyl-terminated polymers including polyethylene glycol, polycaprolactone block copolymers, and polyethylene into fuels and chemical feedstocks such as formic acid and methyl formate. The approach integrates photoredox catalysis with plastic recycling, offering a potential route to repurpose non-biodegradable polymers under ambient conditions.
Nanomaterials for Advanced Photocatalytic Plastic Conversion
This review examines the use of nanomaterials for photocatalytic conversion of waste plastics into useful chemicals and fuels, highlighting approaches that use sunlight as an energy source under ambient conditions. Photocatalytic upcycling of plastic waste offers a potentially sustainable alternative to conventional thermal and chemical recycling methods.
Photocatalytic Upcycling of Plastic Waste: Mechanism, Integrating Modus, and Selectivity
This review examines how photocatalysis, a process that uses light energy to drive chemical reactions, can transform plastic waste into useful products under mild and environmentally friendly conditions. Researchers compared photocatalytic approaches with other methods like heat-based and electrical catalysis, and explored how different experimental setups influence what end products are created. The study suggests that photocatalytic upcycling of plastics is a promising green technology, though challenges remain in improving efficiency and selectivity.
New Progress in Plastic Degradation and Conversion by Photocatalysis
This review examines advances in photocatalytic plastic degradation and conversion, covering both the plastic pollution crisis driven by microplastic formation and innovative recycling approaches including primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary methods.
Efficiency of Hybrid Materials for Photocatalytic Degradation of Micro‐ and Nano‐Plastics
Researchers reviewed how hybrid materials — combinations of multiple substances engineered at the nanoscale — can serve as highly effective photocatalysts to break down microplastics and nanoplastics using light energy. These multi-functional materials improve electron separation and reaction efficiency compared to single-component catalysts, representing a promising technological pathway for removing persistent plastic particles from the environment.
Chemoenzymatic Photoreforming: A Sustainable Approach for Solar Fuel Generation from Plastic Feedstocks
Researchers developed a process combining enzyme treatment with solar-powered chemistry to break down polyester plastics into clean hydrogen fuel and valuable chemicals. The enzymatic step first breaks the plastic into smaller molecules under mild conditions, and then sunlight drives the conversion into useful products. The study demonstrates a sustainable way to upcycle plastic waste, including nanoplastics, using renewable energy rather than harsh industrial processes.
Polymer Degradation Mechanisms and Emerging Strategies for Sustainable Plastics
Plastic waste is one of the defining environmental challenges of our era, and this review surveys the full spectrum of emerging strategies for making plastics degrade more cleanly—from mechanically triggered breakdown using force-sensitive molecules, to metal-catalyzed depolymerization that recovers reusable monomers, to photochemical and hydrolytic approaches that work under mild conditions. Unlike current plastics that fragment into persistent microplastics, next-generation degradable polymers are being designed with built-in chemical triggers that enable controlled, complete breakdown. These innovations could eventually close the loop on plastic waste, though scaling them from laboratory to industrial application remains a major challenge.
Photocatalytic Degradation of Plastic
This review examines photocatalytic degradation as a method for breaking down plastic waste using light-activated chemical reactions. Photocatalytic approaches could offer a way to degrade both plastic debris and microplastics already present in the environment without generating toxic byproducts.
Photocatalytic Degradation and Remediation of Microplastics
This review chapter examines photocatalysis as a remediation strategy for microplastic pollution in aquatic and terrestrial environments, describing how solar energy conversion drives chemical reactions that degrade plastic particles. The authors assess the current state of photocatalytic methods, their mechanisms, and their potential for sustainable microplastic removal.
Crucial role of pre-treatment in plastic photoreforming for precision upcycling
Researchers reviewed how pre-treating plastic waste before photoreforming — a process that uses sunlight to convert plastic into useful chemicals — dramatically affects what products are made and how efficiently. Understanding how polymer structure and preparation influence the reaction is key to turning plastic waste into valuable resources sustainably.
Current Advances and Challenges in Chemical Recycling of Polymeric Materials
This review examines current advances and remaining challenges in chemical recycling of polymeric materials as an alternative to mechanical recycling, which degrades material properties with repeated cycling. The authors discuss the high efficiency and simpler preprocessing requirements of chemical recycling methods against a backdrop of approximately 150 million metric tonnes of annual global plastic waste generation.
State-of-the-Art Achievements and Challenges in Photochemical Conversion of Plastics to Chemicals and Composites
This review covers photochemical methods for converting plastic waste into value-added chemicals and composite materials, examining both the chemistry of photooxidation and recent advances in converting plastic streams into useful products rather than disposing of them.
Valorisation of plastic waste via metal-catalysed depolymerisation
This review covers metal-catalysed depolymerisation approaches for recycling and upcycling waste plastics back into monomers or value-added chemicals, highlighting recent advances in catalyst design that improve selectivity and yield for common polymer types.
Systemically Understanding Aqueous Photocatalytic Upgrading of Microplastic to Fuels
This review examines photocatalytic methods for converting microplastic waste into renewable fuels using solar energy. These approaches could transform plastic pollutants into useful energy sources rather than allowing them to accumulate in the environment and food chain.
Photocatalytic Perception for Degradation of Macro- and Micro-plastics
This review examines photocatalytic approaches for degrading both macro- and micro-plastics, surveying semiconductor-based and other photocatalytic systems capable of breaking down persistent plastic polymers in aquatic and terrestrial environments. The paper evaluates the mechanisms, efficiency, and scalability of photocatalysis as a remediation technology alongside conventional plastic waste management strategies.
Photocatalytic strategy to mitigate microplastic pollution in aquatic environments: Promising catalysts, efficiencies, mechanisms, and ecological risks
This review summarizes recent advances in photocatalytic degradation of microplastics, covering catalysts, mechanisms, and reactive oxygen species generation pathways. The authors call for more realistic photocatalytic materials, better mechanistic understanding of degradation intermediates, and quantitative ecological risk assessment of photocatalysis byproducts.
A comprehensive review on polymer degradation: Mechanisms, environmental implications, and sustainable mitigation strategies
This comprehensive review examined polymer degradation mechanisms including thermal, photo, oxidative, hydrolytic, and biodegradation processes and their environmental implications. The study discussed how these degradation pathways generate microplastic pollution and contribute to ecosystem disruption, while evaluating sustainable mitigation strategies such as biodegradable polymers, advanced recycling, and stabilization techniques.