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Upcycling of polyethylene to gasoline through a self-supplied hydrogen strategy in a layered self-pillared zeolite.

Ziyu CenXue HanLongfei LinSihai YangWanying HanWeilong WenWenli YuanMinghua DongZhiye MaFang LiYubin KeJuncai DongJin ZhangShuhu LiuJialiang LiQian LiNingning WuJun-Feng XiangHao WuLile CaiYanbo HouYongqiang ChengLuke L DaemenAnibal J Ramirez-CuestaPilar FerrerDavid C GrinterGeorg HeldYueming LiuHuizhen Liu
Published in: Nature chemistry (2024)
Conversion of plastic wastes to valuable carbon resources without using noble metal catalysts or external hydrogen remains a challenging task. Here we report a layered self-pillared zeolite that enables the conversion of polyethylene to gasoline with a remarkable selectivity of 99% and yields of >80% in 4 h at 240 °C. The liquid product is primarily composed of branched alkanes (selectivity of 72%), affording a high research octane number of 88.0 that is comparable to commercial gasoline (86.6). In situ inelastic neutron scattering, small-angle neutron scattering, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray absorption spectroscopy and isotope-labelling experiments reveal that the activation of polyethylene is promoted by the open framework tri-coordinated Al sites of the zeolite, followed by β-scission and isomerization on Brönsted acids sites, accompanied by hydride transfer over open framework tri-coordinated Al sites through a self-supplied hydrogen pathway to yield selectivity to branched alkanes. This study shows the potential of layered zeolite materials in enabling the upcycling of plastic wastes.
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