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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Chemoenzymatic Photoreforming: A Sustainable Approach for Solar Fuel Generation from Plastic Feedstocks
ClearChemoenzymatic 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Solar-driven hydrogen evolution in alkaline seawater over earth-abundant g-C3N4/CuFeO2 heterojunction photocatalyst using microplastic as a feedstock
Researchers developed an earth-abundant photocatalyst that can produce hydrogen fuel by breaking down polyester microplastics using solar energy and seawater. The study demonstrates that this novel material achieved over 60-fold enhanced hydrogen production compared to its individual components, suggesting a promising approach for simultaneously addressing plastic pollution and sustainable energy generation.
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.
Photothermal recycling of waste polyolefin plastics into liquid fuels with high selectivity under solvent-free conditions
Researchers developed a sunlight-powered system using a ruthenium-titanium dioxide catalyst that converts waste polyolefin plastics — including common bags and containers — into liquid fuels like gasoline and diesel with 86% efficiency in just three hours. The method requires no solvents and runs on concentrated sunlight, offering a low-cost strategy to recycle otherwise hard-to-process plastic waste.
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.
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.
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.
Isolated Ni atoms enable alkali-free photoreforming of waste polylactic acid plastic
Researchers designed a nickel-based catalyst that can break down polylactic acid (PLA) plastic waste using sunlight, converting it into hydrogen fuel and pyruvic acid without needing harsh chemicals. Although PLA is marketed as biodegradable, this solar-powered recycling approach offers a cleaner and more valuable end-of-life option to prevent PLA from degrading into microplastics in the environment.
Artificial photosynthesis bringing new vigor into plastic wastes
This review explores how artificial photosynthesis, which uses sunlight to drive chemical reactions, can convert plastic waste into valuable chemicals and fuels. The approach works under mild conditions and offers an energy-saving alternative to traditional plastic disposal methods like landfilling or incineration. While still in early stages, this technology could help address both plastic pollution and the need for sustainable carbon resources.
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.
Photocatalytic Removal of Polyester Polyurethane, and Polyethylene Microplastics via ZnO-Fe-Mg-C Nanocomposite to H2
Scientists created a zinc oxide-based nanocomposite catalyst that can break down polyester, polyurethane, and polyethylene microplastics under light, and simultaneously convert them into hydrogen gas. This dual function — destroying plastic pollution while generating a clean fuel — represents a potentially valuable approach to turning a major environmental problem into a usable energy resource.
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.
Catalyst Design and Engineering for Enhanced Microplastic Degradation and Upcycling - A Review
This review covers advances in catalyst design for microplastic degradation and upcycling, examining photocatalytic, Fenton-based, and enzymatic approaches. It evaluates the performance, scalability, and selectivity of different catalyst systems and discusses their potential for converting MP waste into useful chemical feedstocks.
Asymmetric Atomic Pt–B Dual-Site Catalyst for Efficient Photoreforming of Waste Polylactic Acid Plastics in Seawater
Researchers developed a new light-powered catalyst that can break down polylactic acid (PLA) plastic waste in seawater, converting it into useful chemicals and hydrogen fuel. The catalyst uses precisely arranged platinum and boron atoms to efficiently drive the chemical reaction. While focused on cleanup technology rather than health effects, this work offers a promising approach to reducing plastic pollution in the ocean before it breaks down into microplastics.
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.