A Versatile Sulfur‐Assisted Pyrolysis Strategy for High‐Atom‐Economy Upcycling of Waste Plastics into High‐Value Carbon Materials
Open accessAbstract
With the overconsumption of disposable plastics, there is a considerable emphasis on the recycling of waste plastics to relieve the environmental, economic, and health‐related consequences. Here, a sulfur‐assisted pyrolysis strategy is demonstrated for versatile upcycling of plastics into high‐value carbons with an ultrahigh carbon‐atom recovery (up to 85%). During the pyrolysis process, the inexpensive elemental sulfur molecules are covalently bonded with polymer chains, and then thermally stable intermediates are produced via dehydrogenation and crosslinking, thereby inhibiting the decomposition of plastics into volatile small hydrocarbons. In this manner, the carbon products obtained from real‐world waste plastics exhibit sulfur‐rich skeletons with an enlarged interlayer distance, and demonstrate superior sodium storage performance. It is believed that the present results offer a new solution to alleviate plastic pollution and reduce the carbon footprint of plastic industry.
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The sulfur-assisted pyrolysis method allows direct treatment of mixed plastic waste.
“This method also allows for the direct treatment of mixed plastic waste.”
From Functional carbon materials from waste plastics: synthesis and applications (2025) · cites this paper as [65]
The Results and Discussion section, “Converting Real-World Waste Plastics into Sulfur-Doped Carbons” (page unavailable), reports treating waste milk bottles, food boxes, and vessels with sulfur. It does not say these different plastics were treated together as a mixed feed, so direct treatment of mixed plastic waste is not established by the reported tests. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe sulfur-doped carbon material from sulfur-assisted pyrolysis has uniformly distributed sulfur, which expands interlayer spacing and endows excellent sodium ion storage performance.
“The resulting sulfur-doped carbon material exhibited uniformly distributed sulfur, which expanded the interlayer spacing, endowing it with excellent sodium ion storage performance.”
From Functional carbon materials from waste plastics: synthesis and applications (2025) · cites this paper as [65]
Sulfur-assisted pyrolysis of plastics forms in-situ covalent crosslinks with polymer chains, creating thermally stable intermediates that suppress volatile cracking, achieving an 85% carbon recovery rate.
“By utilizing sulfur atoms to form in-situ covalent crosslinks with polymer chains, creating thermally stable intermediates, they effectively suppressed volatile cracking.This achieved an 85% carbon recovery rate.”
From Functional carbon materials from waste plastics: synthesis and applications (2025) · cites this paper as [65]
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References 70 · Cited by 27
Research works printed but not linked: 12
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- Authors
- Tang, Y., Cen, Z., Ma, Q., Zheng, B., Cai, Z., Liu, S., & Wu, D.
- Affiliations
- Sun Yat-sen University (CN)
- Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Cai, Zhaopeng
- Liu, Shaohong
- Wu, Dingcai
- Venue
- Advanced Science
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2023-03-29
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 15
- Pages
- e2206924-e2206924
- ISSN
- 2198-3844 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10214230
- OpenAlex
- W4361296257
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 70
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 2
- FWCI
- 2.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Advanced Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFF0500600)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (51925308, 52172061, 51872336)
- Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2021A1515011617)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Processes
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Recycling and utilization of industrial and municipal waste in materials production
- Keywords
- elemental sulfur, carbon materials, sodium-ion battery anodes, interlayer spacing, plastic pollution, plastic recycling
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