Catalytic deconstruction of organic additive-containing plastics

Plastics waste ends up in landfills, oceans, and incinerators, posing major environmental and human health threats. Catalytic deconstruction is emerging as a key technological solution to handle complex plastics and has successfully converted virgin polymers into various products. Here, we investigate the resilience of chemical deconstruction technologies to organic additives, which are ubiquitous in plastics. We study catalyst-additive interactions experimentally and via first-principles calculations for plastics additives representative of entire classes. We reveal two deactivation mechanisms and demonstrate that many recently developed catalysts are inadequate for polyolefin conversion due to poisoning caused by the strong adsorption of most additives or their small fragments. Furthermore, we also identify conditions and catalysts that can circumvent the challenge of deconstruction in the presence of additives challenge.. Authors: Ngu, Jacqueline [University of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)] (ORCID:0000000313792409); Najmi, Sean [University of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)] (ORCID:0000000282439249); Selvam, Esun [University of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)] (ORCID:0000000204773292); Vance, Brandon [University of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)]; Yang, Piaoping [University of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)]. DOE Contract: SC0001004; SC0021166. Subjects: 10 SYNTHETIC FUELS; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 42 ENGINEERING; Catalysis; Chemical engineering; Sustainability