Photochemical aerobic upcycling of polystyrene plastics to commodity chemicals using anthraquinone as the photocatalyst

Since the United Nations set goals dealing with climate change, the chemical industry has focused on recycling the already-used polymers, targeting the reinsertion of plastic waste to market via new products through reforming. Upcycling of polystyrene plastic waste is becoming one of the hottest fields of research in plastic upconversion. Herein, we introduce a novel, green, organocatalytic and photochemical aerobic upcycling process of polystyrene to benzoic acid, utilizing anthraquinone as the photocatalyst, LED 390 nm as the irradiation source and air as the sole oxidant. The developed protocol was applied successfully to the upcycling of daily-life used polystyrene products, leading to yields varying from 25% to 58%. Moreover, the obtained upcycled product from the polystyrene materials was employed to the successful synthesis of bioactive molecules, such as acetylsalicylic acid.

Automated summary

Since the United Nations set goals dealing with climate change, the chemical industry has focused on recycling already-used polymers, targeting the re-insertion of plastic waste to market via reforming. Upcycling of polystyrene plastic waste is gaining popularity in plastic upconversion research. A novel, green, organocatalytic and photochemical aerobic upcycling process of polystyrene to benzoic acid has been successfully developed and applied to daily-life used polystyrene products, resulting in yields ranging from 25% to 58%. Moreover, the upcycled product obtained from polystyrene materials has been utilized in the synthesis of bioactive molecules, such as acetylsalicylic acid.