Abstract
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is ubiquitous in everyday life; however, it is not recycled because it degrades uncontrollably into toxic products above 250°C. Therefore, it is of interest to controllably dechlorinate PVC at mild temperatures to generate narrowly distributed carbon materials. We present a catalytic route to dechlorinate PVC (~90% reduction of Cl content) at mild temperature (200°C) to produce gas H2 (with negligible coproduction of corrosive gas HCl) and carbon materials using Ga as a liquid metal (LM) catalyst. A LM was used to promote intimate contact between PVC and the catalytic sites. During dechlorination of PVC, Cl is sequestrated in the carbonaceous solid product. Later, chlorine is easily removed with an acetone wash at room temperature. The Ga LM catalyst is reusable, outperforms a traditional supported metal catalyst, and successfully converts (untreated) discarded PVC pipe.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | eadm9963 |
| Journal | Science Advances |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 30 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 26 2024 |
Funding
Acknowledgment Funding: Research sponsored by the laboratory directed Research and development Program of Oak Ridge national laboratory, managed by Ut-Battelle llc, for the U.S. department of energy (dOe). Part of the research was supported by the U.S. dOe, Office of Science, Office of Basic energy Sciences, chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences division, catalysis Science program. Some of the work was conducted as part of user projects at the center for nanophase Materials Sciences (cnMS) and the Spallation neutron Source (SnS), which are U.S. dOe, Office of Science User Facilities located at Oak Ridge national laboratory. this research used resources of the national Synchrotron light Source ii, a U.S. (dOe) Office of Science User Facility operated for the dOe Office of Science by Brookhaven national laboratory under contract no. de-Sc0012704. J.c.F. was supported by the U.S. dOe, Office of Science, Office of Basic energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and engineering division. e.t. was supported by the U.S. dOe, Office of Science, Office of Workforce development for teachers and Scientists (WdtS) under the Science Undergraduate laboratory internships program. Author contributions: All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript. conceptualization: F.-P.G., Z.W., Research sponsored by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle LLC, for the U.S. Department of energy (DOe). Part of the research was supported by the U.S. DOe, Office of Science, Office of Basic energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division, Catalysis Science program. Some of the work was conducted as part of user projects at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), which are U.S. DOe, Office of Science User Facilities located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This research used resources of the National Synchrotron Light Source ii, a U.S. (DOe) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOe Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under contract no. De-SC0012704. J.C.F. was supported by the U.S. DOe, Office of Science, Office of Basic energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and engineering Division. e.T. was supported by the U.S. DOe, Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) under the Science Undergraduate Laboratory internships program.