Ruthenium/TiO2‐Catalyzed Hydrogenolysis of Polyethylene Terephthalate: Reaction Pathways Dominated by Coordination Environment

containing primarily terrace sites. Density functional theory and isotopic labelling revealed that under-coordinated Ru edge sites favor "upright" adsorption of aromatic adsorbates while well-coordinated Ru sites favor "flat-lying" adsorption, where the former mitigates ring hydrogenation and opening. This study demonstrates that reaction pathways can be directed through controlled reactant/intermediate binding via tuning of the Ru coordination environment for efficient conversion of PET to BTX.