Chemical upcycling of polystyrene (PS) is one of the most promising approaches to
plastic waste reuse and to achieve economic development goals. However, it remains
a huge challenge because PS has only chemically inert covalent bonds. As part of an
ongoing study, we herein describe the development, scope, and mechanism of photoinduced
iron catalysis for the selective oxidative degradation of polystyrene to benzoic acid.
A series of commonly found polystyrene products could be degraded to benzoic acid
efficiently. A plausible mechanism involving radical-based stepwise aerobic oxidation
was proposed.
Key words
polystyrene - degradation - iron catalysis - photocatalysis - plastic upcycling
