Treasuring trash: Pt/SrTiO3 catalysts process plastic waste into high-value materials

Single-use plastics are ubiquitous throughout modern society because they have properties that make them desirable in a wide variety of applications, including low cost of production, high thermal and chemical stability, and tunable mechanical properties. Several of the recycling methods currently used to process single-use plastic waste, such as mechanical recycling and pyrolysis, do not selectively process plastic materials into uniform products, as would be advantageous for repurposing these materials in pursuit of a circular economy. Catalytic hydrogenolysis, whereby C–C bonds in polymers are broken over a supported catalyst in the presence of H2, is a promising approach to converting plastics into value-added products that can be sold commercially without further purification. In this account, we present some recent advances in polyolefin hydrogenolysis, with a focus on Pt nanoparticles on SrTiO3 nanocuboid supports (Pt/STO). Current developments in this field, general challenges, and future directions are discussed.