Electrocatalytic plastic waste upcycling to value-added chemicals is a promising, green, and sustainable strategy to mitigate environmental issues caused by plastic pollution while producing valuable chemical feedstocks. It is important to note that most plastics (~70%) are synthesized from a petroleum-derived chemical process. Thus, post-consumer plastics are essential “trapped” hydrocarbon fossil fuels that have been drilled, purified, processed, and used only briefly. Therefore, harvesting carbon and energy resources from the waste streams will put those untapped carbon resources back into their economic cycle. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic is used for daily packaging and textiles with over 70 million annual production. Nevertheless, only <20% of PET waste is recycled mainly by mechanical method and the rest is putting into landfill.
Herein, we demonstrated a novel and sustainable strategy to upcycle real-world PET plastic waste to construct C-N and C-S bond compounds via electrocatalysis method. PET plastic waste was oxidized under near-neutral conditions to produce and stabilize active intermediates that can further couple with N- and S-containing nucleophiles to form C-N and C-S bonds. As a result, Amides and sulfonate can be efficiently and selectively synthesized with real-world plastic wastes as the C source_.Moreover, it is worth noting that SO₃^2-and HSO₃^- are common species in industrial wastewater. Thus, this work is not only beneficial for plastic upcycling but also for wastewater treatment, which is an attractive “turning waste into treasure” strategy.

(a) Previous works: Electrochemical PET plastic wastes upcycling for C<sub>1</sub> and C<sub>2</sub> acids formation. (b) This work: Electrocatalytic construction of C-N and C-S bonds from PET plastic wastes. (c) Coupling electrocatalytic upcycling of PET plastic wastes with nitrogen/sulfur oxides derived from industrial wastes to value-added products.

(a) Previous works: Electrochemical PET plastic wastes upcycling for C₁ and C₂ acids formation. (b) This work: Electrocatalytic construction of C-N and C-S bonds from PET plastic wastes. (c) Coupling electrocatalytic upcycling of PET plastic wastes with nitrogen/sulfur oxides derived from industrial wastes to value-added products.

HONGXING KANG

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