Catalyst-free, microdroplet-mediated waste plastic conversion to diacids
8 affiliations
- 1Advanced Materials and Catalysis Group, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Low-Carbon Synthesis of Value-Added Chemicals, State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Institute of Catalysis, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China
- 2Max Planck Cardiff Centre on the Fundamentals of Heterogeneous Catalysis (FUNCAT), Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
- 3Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo, Meguro, Japan
- 4Institute of Environmental-Chemical Engineering, College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China
- 5College of Materials and Chemistry, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China
- 6Advanced Materials and Catalysis Group, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Low-Carbon Synthesis of Value-Added Chemicals, State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Institute of Catalysis, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China. [email protected]
- 7Max Planck Cardiff Centre on the Fundamentals of Heterogeneous Catalysis (FUNCAT), Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK. [email protected]
- 8Advanced Materials and Catalysis Group, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Low-Carbon Synthesis of Value-Added Chemicals, State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Institute of Catalysis, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China. [email protected]
Abstract
Plastic waste accumulation poses a global threat to both the environment and public health 1–3 . Although catalytic upcycling to value-added chemicals holds promise, its industrial adoption is hindered by additive-induced catalyst deactivation, feedstock heterogeneity, process inflexibility and limited economic viability 4 . Here we report a catalyst-free upcycling strategy that makes use of in situ generation of hydroxyl radicals at microdroplet interfaces 5–8 to enable oxidative cleavage of diverse waste plastics—from polyolefins to rubbers—into carboxylic acids under mild conditions. By eliminating catalyst-dependent pathways, this approach circumvents key challenges of catalyst design and poisoning, while substantially lowering technical barriers and costs 9,10 . Our method achieves complete conversion of polyethylene (PE) with selectivity to short-chain diacids approaching 69% under relatively mild conditions and demonstrated broad applicability to mixed commercial plastics, with scalability demonstrated up to the 300-g scale. Radical intermediate analysis reveals the crucial role of H 2 O in mediating a unique oxidative degradation mechanism: sequential hydroxyl radical addition to alkyl radicals, distinct from classical liquid-phase aerobic oxidation of alkane 11 . This interfacial radical-mediated strategy enables sustainable polymer upcycling with minimal infrastructure. More broadly, this work provides a scalable blueprint for the first, to our knowledge, industrial implementation of microdroplet chemistry, with transformative implications for oxidation processes in organic acid synthesis and beyond.
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BibTeX
@article{gao2026catalystfree,
title = {{Catalyst-free, microdroplet-mediated waste plastic conversion to diacids}},
author = {Ruiliang Gao and Liwei Zhang and Richard J. Lewis and Hao Wang and Zhiyan Pan and Yage Zhang and Zekai Yu and Zhiqiang Liu and Xiaolin Guo and Xiangbowen Du and Wencong Liu and Minghang Li and Shipan Liang and Bing Lu and Ichiro Daigo and Shanjun Mao and Graham John Hutchings and Yong Wang},
journal = {Nature},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.1038/s41586-026-10746-7},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10746-7},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Catalyst-free, microdroplet-mediated waste plastic conversion to diacids
AU - Ruiliang Gao
AU - Liwei Zhang
AU - Richard J. Lewis
AU - Hao Wang
AU - Zhiyan Pan
AU - Yage Zhang
AU - Zekai Yu
AU - Zhiqiang Liu
AU - Xiaolin Guo
AU - Xiangbowen Du
AU - Wencong Liu
AU - Minghang Li
AU - Shipan Liang
AU - Bing Lu
AU - Ichiro Daigo
AU - Shanjun Mao
AU - Graham John Hutchings
AU - Yong Wang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/15
JO - Nature
DO - 10.1038/s41586-026-10746-7
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10746-7
AB - Plastic waste accumulation poses a global threat to both the environment and public health 1–3 . Although catalytic upcycling to value-added chemicals holds promise, its industrial adoption is hindered by additive-induced catalyst deactivation, feedstock heterogeneity, process inflexibility and limited economic viability 4 . Here we report a catalyst-free upcycling strategy that makes use of in situ generation of hydroxyl radicals at microdroplet interfaces 5–8 to enable oxidative cleavage of diverse waste plastics—from polyolefins to rubbers—into carboxylic acids under mild conditions. By eliminating catalyst-dependent pathways, this approach circumvents key challenges of catalyst design and poisoning, while substantially lowering technical barriers and costs 9,10 . Our method achieves complete conversion of polyethylene (PE) with selectivity to short-chain diacids approaching 69% under relatively mild conditions and demonstrated broad applicability to mixed commercial plastics, with scalability demonstrated up to the 300-g scale. Radical intermediate analysis reveals the crucial role of H 2 O in mediating a unique oxidative degradation mechanism: sequential hydroxyl radical addition to alkyl radicals, distinct from classical liquid-phase aerobic oxidation of alkane 11 . This interfacial radical-mediated strategy enables sustainable polymer upcycling with minimal infrastructure. More broadly, this work provides a scalable blueprint for the first, to our knowledge, industrial implementation of microdroplet chemistry, with transformative implications for oxidation processes in organic acid synthesis and beyond.
SN - 0028-0836
SN - 1476-4687
ER -