Non-thermal plasma-assisted rapid hydrogenolysis of polystyrene to high yield ethylene

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 885
• Main Authors: Yao, Libo, King, Jaelynne, Wu, Dezhen, Ma, Jiayang, Li, Jialu, Xie, Rongxuan, Chuang, Steven S. C., Miyoshi, Toshikazu, Peng, Zhenmeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 16-02-2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/131; 140/58; 639/638/169/896; 639/638/224/685; Ambient temperature; Atmospheric pressure; Chemical recycling; Ethylene; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrocarbons; Hydrogen plasma; Hydrogenolysis; multidisciplinary; Plasma; Plastic debris; Polymers; Polystyrene; Polystyrene resins; Reaction kinetics; Reaction time; Recycling; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Selectivity; Thermal plasmas
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28563-7

The evergrowing plastic production and the caused concerns of plastic waste accumulation have stimulated the need for waste plastic chemical recycling/valorization. Current methods suffer from harsh reaction conditions and long reaction time. Herein we demonstrate a non-thermal plasma-assisted method for rapid hydrogenolysis of polystyrene (PS) at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure, generating high yield (>40 wt%) of C
1
–C
3
hydrocarbons and ethylene being the dominant gas product (Selectivity of ethylene,
S
C2H4
 > 70%) within ~10 min. The fast reaction kinetics is attributed to highly active hydrogen plasma, which can effectively break bonds in polymer and initiate hydrogenolysis under mild condition. Efficient hydrogenolysis of post-consumer PS materials using this method is also demonstrated, suggesting a promising approach for fast retrieval of small molecular hydrocarbon modules from plastic materials as well as a good capability to process waste plastics in complicated conditions.
Current recycling methods suffer from harsh reaction conditions and long reaction times. Here the authors show a non-thermal plasma-assisted method for rapid hydrogenolysis of polystyrene at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure, generating high yield (>40 wt%) of C1–C3 hydrocarbons.