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RSC Sustainability

A tandem approach for waste-to-nanomaterial transformation towards polyethylene recycling

Yanan Huang,a   Chi-Linh Do-Thanh, ORCID logo b   Zhenzhen Yang,*c   Sheng Dai ORCID logo *bc  and  Hao Chen ORCID logo *ab  

* Corresponding authors

a State Key Laboratory for Chemo and Biosensing, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China
E-mail: dais@ornl.gov

b Department of Chemistry, Institute for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA

c Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
E-mail: yangz3@ornl.gov

Abstract

Polyethylene (PE) waste was recycled into nanoporous carbon materials via NaNH2-catalyzed tandem cross-linking and carbonization. The process enables C–H cleavage and C–N formation, yielding carbons with surface areas up to 2080 m2 g−1. The resulting materials exhibit excellent performance in gas separation and energy storage applications.

Graphical abstract: A tandem approach for waste-to-nanomaterial transformation towards polyethylene recycling

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SU00861A
Article type
Communication
Submitted
13 Nov 2025
Accepted
18 Dec 2025
First published
19 Dec 2025
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Sustainability, 2026, Advance Article

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A tandem approach for waste-to-nanomaterial transformation towards polyethylene recycling

Y. Huang, C. Do-Thanh, Z. Yang, S. Dai and H. Chen, RSC Sustainability, 2026, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D5SU00861A

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