Issue 5, 2023

Charting a path to catalytic upcycling of plastic micro/nano fiber pollution from textiles to produce carbon nanomaterials and turquoise hydrogen

Abstract

Washing synthetic textile fibers releases micro/nano plastics, endangering the environment. As new filters and associated regulations are developed to prevent fiber release from washing machines, there emerges a need to manage the collected waste, for which the only current options are combustion or landfill. Herein we show for the first time the application of a catalytic pyrolysis approach to upcycle textile derived fibrous micro/nano plastics waste, with the aim of keeping carbon in the solid phase and preventing its release as a greenhouse gas. Herein, we demonstrate the co-production of hydrogen and carbon nanomaterials from the two most prevalent global textile microfiber wastes: cotton and polyester. Our results pave a way forward to a realistic process design for upcycling mixed micro/nano fiber waste collected from laundering, drying, vacuuming, and environmental cleanup.

Graphical abstract: Charting a path to catalytic upcycling of plastic micro/nano fiber pollution from textiles to produce carbon nanomaterials and turquoise hydrogen

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
20 Mar 2023
Accepted
03 Jul 2023
First published
04 Jul 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Sustain., 2023,1, 1177-1183

Charting a path to catalytic upcycling of plastic micro/nano fiber pollution from textiles to produce carbon nanomaterials and turquoise hydrogen

S. Parrilla-Lahoz, M. C. Zambrano, V. Stolojan, R. Bance-Soualhi, J. J. Pawlak, R. A. Venditti, T. R. Reina and M. S. Duyar, RSC Sustain., 2023, 1, 1177 DOI: 10.1039/D3SU00095H

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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