Mechanocatalytic Oxidative Cracking of Poly(ethylene) Via a Heterogeneous Fenton Process

In this work, mechanocatalytic oxidative cracking is used to overcome the chemical inertness of poly(ethylene) (PE) and the difficulties associated with processing this solid feedstock. An Fe2O3-based Fenton system is applied to introduce oxygen-based functional groups to the PE backbone with hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant. Once an oxygen-based functional group is introduced, the polymer chain can be cleaved to achieve cracking effectivity, with only CO, CO2, O2, and H2O as byproducts. The resulting fragments can be used as intermediates to produce fuels and sustainable chemicals.