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PLASTIC UPCYCLING

Microwaving plastic into hydrogen and carbons

The development of feasible routes for the valorization of waste plastics is an urgent challenge to be solved. Now, a strategy is introduced for the selective production of hydrogen-rich gas and multi-walled carbon nanotubes in a single-step process using an FeAlOx catalyst and microwave irradiation.

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Fig. 1: Proposed mechanism for the conversion of plastics to hydrogen and CNTs.

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Correspondence to Gartzen Lopez.

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Lopez, G., Santamaria, L. Microwaving plastic into hydrogen and carbons. Nat Catal 3, 861–862 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-020-00538-1

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