Trash to Treasure: Photoreforming of Plastic Waste into Commodity Chemicals and Hydrogen over MoS 2 -Tipped CdS Nanorods

Plastic valorization presents a significantly untapped opportunity to address environmental issues while creating the necessary economic push for a circular carbon economy. Compared with the conventional routes for processing plastics ( e . g ., pyrolysis and gasification), a photoreforming strategy, namely, photocatalytic plastic oxidation paired with water splitting, aims to achieve plastic valorization into commodity chemicals under mild conditions while offering hydrogen fuels. Here, we implement MoS 2 -tipped CdS nanorod photocatalysts in an aqueous medium to reform pretreated plastics that range from polyesters ( e.g., polylactic acid (PLA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)) to polyolefins ( e.g., polyethylene (PE)). The architecture of MoS 2 /CdS takes advantage of the anisotropic morphology and rapid charge transfer features of nanorods, by collecting the electrons at the MoS 2 tip for hydrogen evolution and utilizing the entire sidewall of CdS nanorods with rich holes toward plastic oxidation. It is shown that continuous H 2 can be evolved from photoreforming of PLA, PET (commercial PET granules and real-world PET bottles), and PE, while these plastic substrates are accordingly converted into a series of valuable chemicals. This work provides an effective way to harness solar energy to realize the transformation of trash (plastics) to treasure (gaseous/liquid chemicals).