Pyrolysis–catalysis upcycling of waste plastic using a multilayer stainless-steel catalyst toward a circular economy
Open accessAbstract
Current un-sustainable plastic management is exacerbating plastic pollution, an urgent shift is thus needed to create a recycling society. Such recovering carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) from waste plastic has been considered as one practical route to achieve a circular economy. Here, we performed a simple pyrolysis-catalysis deconstruction of waste plastic via a monolithic multilayer stainless-steel mesh catalyst to produce multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and H 2 , which are important carbon material and energy carrier to achieve sustainable development. Results revealed that the C and H recovery efficiencies were as high as 86% and 70%, respectively. The unique oxidation-reduction process and improvement of surface roughness led to efficient exposure of active sites, which increased MWCNTs by suppressing macromolecule hydrocarbons. The C recovery efficiency declined by only 5% after 10 cycles, proving the long-term employment of the catalyst. This catalyst can efficiently convert aromatics to MWCNTs by the vapor–solid–solid mechanism and demonstrate good universality in processing different kinds of waste plastics. The produced MWCNTs showed potential in applications of lithium-ion batteries and telecommunication. Owing to the economic profits and environmental benefits of the developed route, we highlighted its potential as a promising alternative to conventional incineration, simultaneously achieving the waste-to-resource strategy and circular economy.
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Liu et al. used acid-washed stainless-steel mesh to catalyze waste plastic pyrolysis, achieving 86% carbon recovery and 70% hydrogen recovery, confirming that the catalyst efficiently converted aromatics into MWCNTs via a vapor-solid mechanism.
“Liu et al. [48] employed acid-washed stainless-steel mesh-where removal of the surface chromium oxide layer exposed Fe/Ni active sites-to catalyze waste plastic pyrolysis.This achieved 86% carbon recovery and 70% hydrogen recovery, confirming that the catalyst efficiently converted aromatics into MWCNTs via a vapor-solid mechanism.”
From Functional carbon materials from waste plastics: synthesis and applications (2025) · cites this paper as [48]
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- Authors
- Liu, Q., Jiang, D., Zhou, H., Yuan, X., Wu, C., Hu, C., Luque, R., Wang, S., Chu, S., Xiao, R., & Zhang, H.
- Affiliations
- Southeast University (CN)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
- Queen's University Belfast (GB)
- Guangdong University of Technology (CN)
- University of Reggio Calabria (IT)
- State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Zhang, Huiyan
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2023-09-11
- Volume
- 120
- Issue
- 39
- Pages
- e2305078120-e2305078120
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC10523629
- OpenAlex
- W4386590309
- Cited by
- 102
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 45 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 5
- FWCI
- 8.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (Queen's University Belfast) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Government of Jiangsu Province
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20200399)
- Southeast University
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Processes
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Carbon Nanotubes in Composites
- Physical Sciences › Chemical Engineering › Catalysis › Catalysts for Methane Reforming
- Keywords
- monolithic catalysts, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, hydrogen production, carbon recovery, circular economy, plastic pollution, catalyst reusability, waste-to-resource, lithium-ion battery anodes
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