Lin, Monica MengdieMonica MengdieLinTay Zheng, JustinJustinTay ZhengWen-Yueh Yu2023-09-052023-09-052023-01-0118761070https://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/635029Background: Recently the plastic pollution and CO2 emission have both become critical issues to be addressed for the sake of a sustainable and carbon-neutral society. To cope with these imminent issues, it is imperative to develop new processes to recycle and reutilize the waste plastics and CO2 produced by anthropogenic activities. Methods: In this study, the chemical recycling of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) was conducted via a one-pot process, in which PET was degraded into dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) and ethylene glycol (EG) by methanol (MeOH) that was in-situ produced by CO2 hydrogenation over the Cu/ZnO catalyst. The effect of alcohol addition on the one-pot PET methanolysis was investigated in an attempt to enhance the MeOH and DMT yields. Significant findings: Our results reveal that the added isopropanol (i-PrOH) could act as a catalytic solvent to boost the PET degradation (from 31.9% to 63.1% PET conversion) with a high DMT selectivity (92.7%) from the CO2-H2-PET system. Such high DMT selectivity is attributed to the limited PET alcoholysis and DMT transesterification ability of i-PrOH. These findings demonstrate that the one-pot PET methanolysis enabled by i-PrOH-assisted CO2 hydrogenation is a promising approach to valorize waste PET and CO2 simultaneously with a high efficiency.Catalytic solvent | CO hydrogenation 2 | Methanolysis | Poly(ethylene terephthalate)[SDGs]SDG7[SDGs]SDG12[SDGs]SDG13journal article10.1016/j.jtice.2023.1050692-s2.0-85168337752https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85168337752