@article{43e500f53ed94d4bb47ee3c4e884e861,
title = "Polyethylene upcycling to long-chain alkylaromatics by tandem hydrogenolysis/aromatization",
abstract = "The current scale of plastics production and the accompanying waste disposal problems represent a largely untapped opportunity for chemical upcycling. Tandem catalytic conversion by platinum supported on g-alumina converts various polyethylene grades in high yields (up to 80 weight percent) to lowmolecular- weight liquid/wax products, in the absence of added solvent or molecular hydrogen, with little production of light gases. The major components are valuable long-chain alkylaromatics and alkylnaphthenes (average ∼C30, dispersity = 1.1). Coupling exothermic hydrogenolysis with endothermic aromatization renders the overall transformation thermodynamically accessible despite the moderate reaction temperature of 280°C. This approach demonstrates how waste polyolefins can be a viable feedstock for the generation of molecular hydrocarbon products. ",
author = "Fan Zhang and Manhao Zeng and Yappert, {Ryan D.} and Jiakai Sun and Lee, {Yu Hsuan} and LaPointe, {Anne M.} and Baron Peters and Abu-Omar, {Mahdi M.} and Scott, {Susannah L.}",
note = "Funding Information: We thank D. Uchenik and S. Walker for their assistance in FD-MS and NMR experiment setup and data collection. Supported by award DE-AC-02-07CH11358 from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences, as a subcontract from Ames Laboratory. Some experiments were performed using the MRL Shared Experimental Facilities, supported by the MRSEC Program of the NSF under award DMR 1720256, a member of the NSF-funded Materials Research Facilities Network (www.mrfn.org). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 The Authors.",
year = "2020",
month = oct,
day = "23",
doi = "10.1126/science.abc5441",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "370",
journal = "Science",
issn = "0036-8075",
publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",
number = "6515",
}