Polyethylene (PE) is a high-volume commodity material often used in single-use products that is challenging to recycle. Currently, mechanical recycling is the primary end-of-life strategy; however, this process cannot be performed indefinitely because each iteration degrades material properties, yielding lower value products. Alternatively, chemical processes can be used to upcycle PE deemed unsuitable for mechanical recycling into higher value chemicals and materials. Due to the high-energy barriers for polymer deconstruction, catalytic strategies are commonly investigated, but catalyst poisoning can potentially occur when using real-world waste. Herein, we introduce Temperature Gradient Thermolysis (TGT) to upcycle PE waste. TGT utilizes mild thermal conditions and a spatial temperature gradient to selectively convert both virgin and contaminated PE streams into a liquid oil. After a 25x increase in reaction scale, product chain length selectivity was maintained, and the temperature gradient enabled the production of a narrow distribution of hydrocarbons (C9 – C15). The resulting oils were derivatized into sulfate detergents exhibiting comparable or superior surfactant properties relative to the commercial benchmark, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). This work establishes TGT as a robust and potentially scalable strategy for converting contaminated PE waste into high-value chemical feedstocks.
