Floatable organic-inorganic hybrid-TiO2 unlocks superoxide radicals for plastic photoreforming in neutral solution

Mengpei Jiang, Jianjun Li, Xinyi Wan, Jianhang Qiu, Tingting Yao, Wenyu Zhang, Shangyi Ma, Hao Tan, Ali Han, Chunlin Chen and Gang Liu ()
Additional contact information
Mengpei Jiang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jianjun Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xinyi Wan: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jianhang Qiu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tingting Yao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wenyu Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Shangyi Ma: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hao Tan: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ali Han: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chunlin Chen: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Gang Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Plastic photoreforming offers a compelling technology to address the global issue of the large amount cumulative plastic waste by converting it into valuable fuels and chemical feedstocks. However, constrained by insufficient mass and energy transfers, the existing hydrophilic plastic photoreforming systems heavily rely on the unsustainable chemical pre-treatments in corrosive solutions. Herein, we demonstrate a conceptual plastic photoreforming system based on a floatable hydrophobic organic-inorganic hybrid-TiO2 photocatalyst, which unlocks superoxide radical as the major oxidizing species and forms a four-phase interface among photocatalyst, plastic substrate, water and air, thus greatly enhancing the mass and energy transfers. Consequently, the photoreforming yield rates in neutral aqueous solutions are increased by 1–2 orders of magnitude for typical plastic including polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyvinyl chloride without applying pre-treatments, whilst producing high-value C2H5OH with a selectivity of over 40%. We believe this work reveals a feasible route to sustainable plastic photoreforming.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59467-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59467-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59467-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().