The Energy and Environmental Catalysis Research Team Achieves Significant Progress in the Catalytic Conversion of Waste Carbon Resources
Recently, the Energy and Environmental Catalysis Research Team at the College of Chemistry and Material Science has made significant progress in the photovoltaic catalytic transformation of waste carbon resources into energy small molecules. Their relevant work, titled “Photothermocatalytic Wet Reforming of Waste Plastics to Syngas,” has been published in the prestigious international journal, the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Zhang Yaxin, a doctoral student from the 2022 cohort, is the first author, with Hebei University listed as the leading institution; Professor Gao Yongjun from our school, Professor Wang Tianfu from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Professor Martin from Peking University serve as the corresponding authors.
Currently, the long-term presence of non-biodegradable waste plastics in ecosystems has resulted in severe environmental pollution. The catalytic conversion treatment technology for these carbon-containing wastes not only helps alleviate environmental pressure and promotes pollution management but also enables the efficient recycling of carbon-based resources, reducing fossil energy consumption while fostering the development of a circular economy. In light of this, the research team designed a catalyst by using nickel supported on titanium dioxide rich in oxygen vacancies, employing photothermal catalytic technology to achieve the wet reforming of waste plastics to produce syngas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide), which can serve as a feedstock for the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, an important petrochemical process. By using Fresnel lenses to focus sunlight, this reaction can take place outdoors under solar illumination. This method not only integrates the utilisation of solar energy and water but also effectively catalyses the upgrading of waste plastics into multifunctional platform feedstock syngas.
This research has received substantial support from the National Natural Science Foundation.
Full text: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/jacs.5c00620