Microplastic pollution has emerged as a pressing environmental issue of global concern due to its detrimental effects on the environment and ecology. Restricted to their characters of complex composition, it is a great challenge to propose a more cost-effective approach to achieve highly selective conversion of microplastic into add-value products. Here we demonstrate an upcycling strategy for converting PET microplastics into added-value chemicals (formate, terephthalic acid and K₂SO₄). PET is initially hydrolyzed in KOH solution to produce terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol, which is subsequently used as an electrolyte to produce formate at the anode. Meanwhile, the cathode undergoes hydrogen evolution reaction to produce H₂. Preliminary techno-economic analysis suggests that this strategy has certain economic feasibility and a novel Mn_0.1Ni_0.9Co₂O_4-δ rod-shaped fiber (RSFs) catalyst we synthesized can achieve high Faradaic efficiency (> 95%) at 1.42 V vs. RHE with optimistic formate productivity. The high catalytic performance can be attributed to the doping of Mn changing the electronic structure and reducing the metal-oxygen covalency of NiCo₂O₄, reducing the lattice oxygen oxidation in spinel oxide OER electrocatalysts. This work not only put forward an electrocatalytic strategy for PET microplastic upcycling but also guides the design of electrocatalysts with excellent performance.

微塑料污染由于其对环境和生态的不利影响，已成为全球关注的紧迫环境问题。受限于其成分复杂的特点，提出一种更具成本效益的方法来实现微塑料高度选择性地转化为附加值产品是一个巨大的挑战。在这里，我们展示了将 PET 微塑料转化为增值化学品（甲酸盐、对苯二甲酸和 K ₂ SO ₄）的升级回收策略。PET 最初在 KOH 溶液中水解生成对苯二甲酸和乙二醇，随后用作电解质在阳极生成甲酸​​盐。同时，阴极发生析氢反应，产生H ₂。初步技术经济分析表明该策略具有一定的经济可行性，我们合成的新型Mn _0.1 Ni _0.9 Co ₂ O _4-δ棒状纤维（RSFs）催化剂在1.42 V vs . RHE 具有乐观的甲酸盐生产率。高催化性能归因于Mn的掺杂改变了NiCo ₂ O ₄的电子结构并降低了金属-氧共价性，减少了尖晶石氧化物OER电催化剂中晶格氧的氧化。这项工作不仅提出了PET微塑料升级改造的电催化策略，而且指导了性能优异的电催化剂的设计。