Issue 17, 2024

Opportunities and challenges for plastic depolymerization by biomimetic catalysis

Abstract

Plastic waste has imposed significant burdens on the environment. Chemical recycling allows for repeated regeneration of plastics without deterioration in quality, but often requires harsh reaction conditions, thus being environmentally unfriendly. Enzymatic catalysis offers a promising solution for recycling under mild conditions, but it faces inherent limitations such as poor stability, high cost, and narrow substrate applicability. Biomimetic catalysis may provide a new avenue by combining high enzyme-like activity with the stability of inorganic materials. Biomimetic catalysis has demonstrated great potential in biomass conversion and has recently shown promising progress in plastic degradation. This perspective discusses biomimetic catalysis for plastic degradation from two perspectives: the imitation of the active centers and the imitation of the substrate-binding clefts. Given the chemical similarity between biomass and plastics, relevant work is also included in the discussion to draw inspiration. We conclude this perspective by highlighting the challenges and opportunities in achieving sustainable plastic recycling via a biomimetic approach.

Graphical abstract: Opportunities and challenges for plastic depolymerization by biomimetic catalysis

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
04 Jan 2024
Accepted
20 Mar 2024
First published
20 Mar 2024
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2024,15, 6200-6217

Opportunities and challenges for plastic depolymerization by biomimetic catalysis

Y. Wu, Q. Hu, Y. Che and Z. Niu, Chem. Sci., 2024, 15, 6200 DOI: 10.1039/D4SC00070F

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