Towards the Circular Economy: Converting Aromatic Plastic Waste Back to Arenes over a Ru/Nb2O5 Catalyst

The upgrading of plastic waste is one of the grand challenges for the 21(st) century owing to its disruptive impact on the environment. Here, we show the first example of the upgrading of various aromatic plastic wastes with C-O and/or C-C linkages to arenes (75-85 % yield) via catalytic hydrogenolysis over a Ru/Nb2O5 catalyst. This catalyst not only allows the selective conversion of single-component aromatic plastic, and more importantly, enables the simultaneous conversion of a mixture of aromatic plastic to arenes. The excellent performance is attributed to unique features including: (1) the small sized Ru clusters on Nb2O5, which prevent the adsorption of aromatic ring and its hydrogenation; (2) the strong oxygen affinity of NbOx species for C-O bond activation and Bronsted acid sites for C-C bond activation. This study offers a catalytic path to integrate aromatic plastic waste back into the supply chain of plastic production under the context of circular economy.

Automated summary

By catalytic hydrogenolysis using a Ru/Nb2O5 catalyst, various aromatic plastic wastes containing C-O and/or C-C linkages can be upgraded to arenes, presenting a new approach to addressing the environmental impact of plastic waste.