(380a) Innovative Strategies for Plastic Waste Mitigation

Plastics are widely used across industries and daily life due to their low cost, durability, and versatility. However, their chemical stability and slow degradation have led to the growing accumulation of plastic waste in landfills and marine environments, posing a severe environmental challenge.^[1] To address this issue, my group has developed three key strategies: (1) the synthesis of fully biodegradable plastics, (2) the conversion of plastic waste into valuable materials, and (3) the removal of microplastics from water.^{[2, 3]} In this presentation, I will highlight our key findings in these areas:

We developed a novel and efficient approach to convert dead leaves into fully biodegradable plastics. This strategy significantly enhances the interaction among lignin, cellulose, and whewellite, resulting in a tensile strength of 132 MPa—far exceeding that of petroleum-based plastics. Beyond enabling the synthesis of strong, biodegradable plastics, this approach also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), one of the most widely used plastics, degrades extremely slowly in natural environments and landfills, contributing to severe plastic pollution. We demonstrated that MgO-templated pyrolysis with chemical activation is an effective method to convert waste PET into 3D meso/macroporous carbon (MMPC) with large total surface area (1863 m²/g) and meso/macropore surface area (1478 m²/g). Moreover, the resulting MMPC exhibited a high capacitance of 191 F/g and excellent rate capability, retaining 86.3% of its performance from 0.5 to 10 A/g, making it a promising material for supercapacitors.

The prevalence of PET microplastics in water poses a significant environmental challenge. We demonstrated that PET microplastics can be efficiently removed using column filtration with carbon-based materials, achieving 100% removal efficiency and a capacity of 560 pore volumes at room temperature. This method shows great promise for drinking water purification.

References

(1) S. Chen, Y. H. Hu, Advancements and future directions in waste plastics recycling: From mechanical methods to innovative chemical processes, Chemical Engineering Journal, 493, 152727 (2024).

(2) S. Fang, X. Lyu, T. Tong, A. I. Lim, T. Li, J. Bao, Y. H. Hu, Turning dead leaves into an active multifunctional material as evaporator, photocatalyst, and bioplastic, Nature Communications 14, 1203 (2023).

(3) S. Chen, S Fang, AI Lim, J Bao, YH Hu, 3D meso/macroporous carbon from MgO-templated pyrolysis of waste plastic as an efficient electrode for supercapacitors, Chemosphere 322, 138174 (2023).