Xueying Wen, Ran Niu, Tao Tang, Jiang Gong*

Atmospheric, continuous degradation of poly(ethylene terephthalate) waste by ZnO

Applied Catalysis B: Environment and Energy (2025) Accept. (IF2024 = 20.3)

Catalytic hydrogenolysis is a promising strategy for upcycling waste poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) into terephthalic acid, but the continuous degradation of PET was hindered by the use of high-pressurized flammable H2 and the low degradation efficiency due to the slow H₂ diffusion in PET melt. Herein, we report the tandem strategy of Zn(II)-σ-Lewis acid/addition/nucleophilic attack using ZnO that achieves the atmospheric, organic solvent-free and continuous degradation of waste PET into terephthalic acid (yield>97%). By activating the carbonyl group of PET, ZnO promotes β-scission to form vinyl-terminated intermediate, which subsequently undergoes the in-situ addition with the generated OH? nucleophilic site and the bound H2O on ZnII. In atmospheric conditions, PET is continuously degraded at a rate of 2.5 kg h^?1 in laboratory, which is four orders of magnitude higher than the state-of-the-art catalysts.