Diatomite/Cu/Al layered double hydroxide hybrid composites for polyethylene degradation

A diatomite/Cu/Al layered double hydroxide hybrid composite (DI-LDH) was synthesized using the hydrothermal method. The synthesized DI-LDH composites were characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method. Polyethylene degradation over DI-LDH was studied in a batch reactor. DI-LDH showed layered structures, indicating that the diatomite/Cu/Al double hydroxide hybrid was successfully synthesized. A significant decrease in the degradation temperature and the released amounts of CO and CO₂ was observed in the DI-LDH catalytic degradation reaction, which indicated that DI-LDH was helpful for the polyethylene degradation reaction. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results suggested that the reaction of Cu²⁺ → Cu⁺ occurred in polyethylene catalytic pyrolysis, which resulted in the decrease in the released CO amount. DI-LDH may be a potential environmental catalyst that can be applied to treat LDPE waste.