Electrocatalytic upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate plastic to formic acid coupled with energy-saving hydrogen production over hierarchical Pd-doped NiTe nanoarrays

Abstract

Electrochemical upcycling of plastic waste to high-value chemicals is an ideal approach for the valorization of waste resources. In this study, we report the electro-reforming of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic hydrolysate to valuable formate and hydrogen. Pd-deposited hierarchical aligned NiTe nanoarrays on Ni foam (Pd-NiTe/NF) is developed for oxidation of PET hydrolysate at anode and hydrogen evolution at cathode, with the overpotentials of 0.019 and 1.35 V at 10 and 100 mA cm-2, respectively. In co-electrolysis system, the Pd-NiTe/NF exhibits high Faradaic efficiencies for concurrent production of value-added formate (95.6%) and H2 (98.6%). The high activity and stability of Pd-NiTe/NF can be ascribed to that the interfacial heterostructures by incorporating Pd atoms and the strongly interfacial electronic interactions of between Pd and NiTe can synergistically promote PET-derived ethylene glycol to formate oxidation and hydrogen evolution. This work shows promising prospect in electro-reforming PET plastic waste to valuable chemicals.