Photocatalytic Conversion of Waste Plastics into C₂ Fuels under Simulated Natural Environment Conditions

Reported here is the first highly selective conversion of various waste plastics into C₂ fuels under simulated natural environment conditions by a sequential photoinduced C-C cleavage and coupling pathway, where single-use bags, disposable food containers, food wrap films, and their main components of polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyvinyl chloride can be photocatalytically transformed into CH₃ COOH without using sacrificial agents. As an example, polyethylene is photodegraded 100 % into CO₂ within 40 h by single-unit-cell thick Nb₂ O₅ layers, while the produced CO₂ is further photoreduced to CH₃ COOH. Various methods and experiments disclose that O₂ and ^. OH radicals trigger the oxidative C-C cleavage of polyethylene to form CO₂ , while other investigations show that the yielded CH₃ COOH stems from CO₂ photoreduction by C-C coupling of ^. COOH intermediates. This two-step plastic-to-fuel conversion may help to simultaneously address the white pollution crisis and harvest highly valuable multicarbon fuels in natural environments.