2025-09-22 デラウェア大学（UD）
An illustration of the chemical structure of the new catalyst. Silica pillars (white with red and yellow balls) open the space between MXene layers (blue) loaded with ruthenium (purple), allowing polymers (grey) to flow more easily.
＜関連情報＞
- https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2025/september/catalyst-speeds-plastic-waste-to-liquid-fuels/
- https://www.cell.com/chem-catalysis/abstract/S2667-1093(25)00197-6
調整可能な層間間隔を有する二次元MXene担持ルテニウム触媒によるプラスチック廃棄物の水素分解 Plastic-waste hydrogenolysis over two-dimensional MXene-supported ruthenium catalysts with tunable interlayer spacing
Ali Kamali ∙ Joshua M. Little ∙ Song Luo ∙ … ∙ Po-Yen Chen ∙ Dionisios G. Vlachos ∙ Dongxia Liu
Chem Catalysis Published:July 15, 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.checat.2025.101459
The bigger picture
Plastic waste is a pressing global challenge. Chemical upcycling offers a promising pathway for converting it into valuable hydrocarbons. However, conventional catalysts often show low activity as a result of the limited mass transport of bulky polymer chains. This research develops a new class of two-dimensional MXene-supported ruthenium catalyst. The layered MXenes structure confines ruthenium particles within interlayer spaces, enhancing stability and enabling efficient side-face contact with polyethylene chains. Incorporating silica pillars further expands the interlayer spacing, significantly improving mass transport, reaction rates, and selectivity toward liquid fuels. This work highlights the potential of nanostructured catalyst design to enhance plastic upcycling. In the long term, this innovation could enable scalable, energy-efficient technologies for plastic-waste management and have societal benefits ranging from cleaner environments to more sustainable resource use.
Highlights
- MXene-supported Ru catalysts enhance plastic hydrogenolysis activity
- SiO2 pillars expand MXene interlayers, improving polymer access and mass transport
- Ru confined in MXene layers lowers CH4 yield and boosts liquid-fuel selectivity
- MXene architecture enables control over Ru shape and size for better performance
Summary
The hydrogenolysis of plastics is limited by active-site inaccessibility and inefficient mass transport of bulky polymer chains. To overcome these challenges, this work developed two-dimensional MXene-supported Ru (Ru@MXene) catalysts. Lyophilization of a solution containing dispersed MXene sheets and Ru precursors enabled the confinement of Ru species within the MXene interlayers, which act as pillars to expand the interlayer spacing. Building on this, a silica-pillared MXene-supported Ru (Ru@P-MXene) with even larger interlayer spacing exhibited a reaction rate of 914.9 gC5–C35 gRu−1 h−1 for the hydrogenolysis of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) into valuable liquid chemicals (e.g., C5–C35). A comparison of product yields between Ru@P-MXene and Ru@MXene suggests that elongated Ru particles confined within the MXene support expose their side facets for the reaction. This work demonstrates a new application of MXene in thermochemical catalysis, offering a solution to the challenges of active-site accessibility, mass transport, and reaction confinement in chemical plastic upcycling.
