Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

From photocatalysis to photon–phonon co-driven catalysis for methanol reforming to hydrogen and valuable by-products

This review covers hydrogen production from methanol using light-driven chemical reactions, examining new photocatalytic materials and methods. While not about microplastics directly, the clean energy technologies discussed could help reduce fossil fuel dependence and the plastic production that drives microplastic pollution.

2025 Chemical Society Reviews 47 citations
Article Tier 2

From Plastic Waste to Green Hydrogen and Valuable Chemicals Using Sunlight and Water

This review examines how solar-powered photoreforming technology can convert plastic waste into valuable chemicals and green hydrogen using sunlight and water. Researchers found that while the approach shows significant promise as an alternative to landfilling, there is currently no standardized way to compare results across different studies. The study proposes guidelines for more consistent evaluation of photocatalyst performance to help advance this technology toward practical application.

2024 Angewandte Chemie 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Visible Light Photocatalysis: Green Hydrogen Production

Not relevant to microplastics — this paper describes strategies for using visible-light photocatalysis to generate green hydrogen fuel from organic compounds and cellulose waste, an energy research topic unrelated to microplastic pollution.

2023 ECS Meeting Abstracts 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Building a bridge from solid wastes to solar fuels and chemicals via artificial photosynthesis

This review examined photoreforming (PR) as a process that converts solid plastic and other waste materials into hydrogen fuel and value-added chemicals using solar energy, combining waste remediation with clean fuel production. The authors assessed photocatalyst design strategies that enable efficient PR of diverse waste streams including polyethylene and polypropylene.

2022 EcoMat 41 citations
Article Tier 2

Comprehensive Insights into Photoreforming of Waste Plastics for Hydrogen Production

This review examines photocatalytic "photoreforming" — a solar-powered process that breaks down waste plastics while simultaneously generating hydrogen fuel and useful chemical byproducts. Recent advances in catalyst design, including semiconductor materials and metal-organic frameworks, are analyzed alongside factors like light intensity and pH that affect hydrogen output. This dual-purpose approach could help address both the global plastic waste crisis and the need for clean energy simultaneously.

2025 Preprints.org 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Chemoenzymatic Photoreforming: A Sustainable Approach for Solar-fuel Generation from Plastic Feedstocks

Researchers developed a hybrid process combining enzyme pretreatment with solar-driven photoreforming to convert polyester plastic waste into clean hydrogen fuel and valuable chemicals under mild conditions. This approach offers a way to clean up plastic pollution while generating renewable energy simultaneously.

2023 2 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2023 Solar RRL
Article Tier 2

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.

2023 Journal of the American Chemical Society 82 citations
Article Tier 2

Photoreforming of Nonrecyclable Plastic Waste over a Carbon Nitride/Nickel Phosphide Catalyst

A carbon nitride/nickel phosphide photocatalyst was used to photoreform non-recyclable PET and PLA plastic waste at ambient temperature, producing clean hydrogen fuel and organic chemicals without precious metals or toxic components. The study demonstrates a low-energy, scalable approach to converting plastic waste into valuable chemical feedstocks using sunlight.

2019 Journal of the American Chemical Society 632 citations
Article Tier 2

Mini-review on remediation of plastic pollution through photoreforming: progress, possibilities, and challenges.

This mini-review examines photoreforming — a solar-powered process that converts plastic waste into valuable chemicals and hydrogen fuel — as a promising approach to reducing plastic pollution while generating clean energy. The authors review progress in the technology, assess remaining challenges such as efficiency and scalability, and place it in the context of other plastic waste remediation strategies.

2023 Environmental science and pollution research international
Article Tier 2

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.

2023 Journal of Materials Chemistry A 94 citations
Article Tier 2

Photoreforming of Microplastics: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Environmental Remediation

This review explores photoreforming, a technology that uses sunlight to break down microplastics and convert them into useful chemicals like hydrogen fuel. The process could offer a sustainable way to clean up microplastic pollution while producing valuable products, though it is still in the early research stage. If scaled up, this approach could help reduce the environmental and health risks of microplastics by actually eliminating them rather than just filtering them out of water.

2024 Small 19 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2025 Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 3 citations
Article Tier 2

A Numerical Case Study of Particle Flow and Solar Radiation Transfer in a Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) Photocatalytic Reactor for Hydrogen Production

Not relevant to microplastics — this computational study models solar radiation transfer and particle flow in compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) photocatalytic reactors for hydrogen production, with no connection to microplastic research.

2024 Catalysts 3 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2024 Microplastics
Article Tier 2

Light-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.

2024 Nature Communications 76 citations
Article Tier 2

Metal Oxides‐Based Nano/Microstructures for Photodegradation of Microplastics

This review covers how metal oxide materials, such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, can be used as photocatalysts to break down microplastics using sunlight. Some approaches can even convert plastic waste into useful fuels and chemicals. The technology offers a promising eco-friendly strategy for cleaning microplastics from water and wastewater systems.

2023 Advanced Sustainable Systems 43 citations
Article Tier 2

Photoreforming of PET and PLA microplastics for sustainable hydrogen production using TiO2 and g-C3N4 photocatalysts

Researchers used photoreforming—a light-driven process—to break down PET and PLA microplastics while simultaneously generating hydrogen gas, demonstrating a dual-benefit approach that addresses plastic pollution while producing clean energy from waste plastic.

2025 Journal of environmental chemical engineering 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Efficient Photocatalytic H2O2 Production Ability of a Novel Graphitic Carbon Nitride/Carbon Composites under Visible Light

Researchers developed a novel graphitic carbon nitride/carbon composite synthesized from microplastics and melamine that achieves high-rate photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide production under visible light, demonstrating a way to upcycle plastic waste into useful photocatalysts.

2023 Small 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Carbon-based Composite Materials as Photocatalyst for Photo-Reforming of Organics to Obtain H2

Researchers investigated carbon-based composite photocatalysts — including Nb2O5 and TiO2 combined with graphene or graphene oxide — for photo-reforming of plastics (PET and PLA) and organic compounds into hydrogen under both UV and natural solar light, finding that composite materials produced significantly more hydrogen than bare semiconductors.

2025 SHILAP Revista de lepidopterología
Article Tier 2

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.

2023 Molecules 22 citations
Article Tier 2

Visible-Light-DrivenPhotocatalytic Hydrogen Productionfrom Polystyrene Nanoplastics Using Pd/TiO2 Nanoparticles

Researchers developed a palladium-modified titanium dioxide photocatalyst that degrades polystyrene nanoplastics under visible light while simultaneously producing green hydrogen, finding that the plastic itself was necessary as a fuel source for hydrogen evolution.

2025 Figshare
Article Tier 2

Systemically Understanding Aqueous Photocatalytic Upgrading of Microplastic to Fuels

This review examined photocatalytic methods for converting microplastics into valuable fuels in water, summarizing advances in reactants, pretreatments, catalysts, and reactor design while highlighting the need for improved pretreatment processes to enhance efficiency and selectivity.

2023 Solar RRL 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Assessing the Sustainability of Photodegradation and Photocatalysis for Wastewater Reuse in an Agricultural Resilience Context

Not directly relevant to microplastics — this review evaluates photodegradation and photocatalysis technologies for purifying wastewater for agricultural reuse, without a focus on microplastic removal.

2023 Water 14 citations