Growing plastic waste has generated both environmental concern and interest in new ways to utilize it as a feedstock for making value added chemicals. We have reported on the catalytic conversion of polyethylene (PE) to value-added alkylaromatics using Pt nanoparticles in tandem hydrogenolysis/aromatization by hydrogen redistribution. Modification of the support (γ-Al2O3) with halogen atoms increases systematically the support's acidity. A significant enhancement in depolymerization rate was achieved for X-Al2O3 where X = Cl or F. The acidity of the catalyst can be tuned by varying the halogen loading to produce a high yield of alkylaromatics with a desirable molecular weight (average C18 with a narrow distribution). Mechanistic studies showed the Pt sites principally responsible for hydrogenation/dehydrogenation and the Brønsted acid sites via carbonium ions formation for isomerization, C-C scission, cyclization, and ring expansion. Our findings demonstrate a novel pathway for chemical upcycling of polyolefins through the design of synergistic bifunctional catalyst sites.

Bifunctional catalysis for upcycling of polyethylene to alkylaromatics

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