中国科学院大连化学物理研究所徐舒涛团队近日研究了在线核磁共振引导的现实生活中塑料正交变换。这一研究成果发表在2025年6月25日出版的《自然》杂志上。

塑料废物堆积的全球危机威胁着野生动物和生态系统。将塑料废物转化为有价值的化学品和燃料的催化过程提供了有前景的解决方案。由于其成分和结构的多样性，回收或升级现实生活中的塑料混合物颇具挑战性。研究组提出了一种面向产品的策略，利用塑料混合物中不同官能团反应性的正交性来生产有价值的产品。这种方法涉及识别官能团，然后将混合物中的选择性成分转化为有价值的产品。他们使用聚苯乙烯、聚乳酸、聚氨酯、聚碳酸酯、聚氯乙烯、聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯、聚乙烯和聚丙烯的混合物，以及现实生活中的塑料，来证明所提出策略的可行性和有效性。 

这些成分的不同物理和化学性质通常会阻碍直接回收，这为拟议策略的提取和转化提供了机会。从20克现实生活中的塑料混合物中，包括聚苯乙烯泡沫、聚乳酸吸管、聚氨酯管、聚碳酸酯口罩、聚氯乙烯袋、聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯瓶、聚乙烯滴管和聚丙烯瓶，研究组获得了8种以上的单独化学物质：1.3 g苯甲酸，0.5 增塑剂，0.7克 g丙氨酸，0.7 g乳酸，1.4 g芳香胺盐，2.1 g双酚 A，2.0 g对苯二甲酸和3.5 g C₃-C₆烷烃。这项研究揭示了根据复杂塑料废物的化学性质设计其转化策略的潜力，并为管理报废塑料混合物开辟了道路。

附：英文原文

Title: In-line NMR guided orthogonal transformation of real-life plastics

Author: Zhang, Mei-Qi, Zhou, Yida, Cao, Ruochen, Tian, Shuheng, Jiao, Yuchen, Guo, Zhenbo, Wang, Maolin, Peng, Hongpeng, Sun, Bo, Xu, Bingjun, Wang, Meng, Xu, Shutao, Ma, Ding

Issue&Volume: 2025-06-25

Abstract: The global crisis of plastic waste accumulation threatens wildlife and ecosystems1. Catalytic processes that convert plastic waste into valuable chemicals and fuels offer promising solutions2. Recycling or upcycling of real-life plastic mixtures is challenging owing to their diverse composition and structure3. Here we propose a product-oriented strategy leveraging the orthogonality in reactivities of different functional groups in plastic mixtures to yield valuable products. This approach involves identifying functional groups followed by converting a selective component in the mixture to valuable products. We use mixtures of polystyrene, polylactic acid, polyurethane, polycarbonate, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene and polypropylene, as well as real-life plastics, to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy. The diverse physical and chemical properties of these components, which typically hinder direct recovery, offer opportunities for extraction and transformation with the proposed strategy. From a 20-g mixture of real-life plastics, including polystyrene foam, a polylactic acid straw, a polyurethane tube, a polycarbonate mask, a polyvinyl chloride bag, a polyethylene terephthalate bottle, a polyethylene dropper and a polypropylene bottle, we obtained more than 8 separate chemicals: 1.3g of benzoic acid, 0.5g of plasticizer, 0.7g of alanine, 0.7g of lactic acid, 1.4g of aromatic amine salt, 2.1g of bisphenolA, 2.0g of terephthalic acid and 3.5g of C3–C6 alkanes. This study reveals the potential for designing transformation strategies for complex plastic waste based on their chemical nature and opens paths for managing end-of-life plastic mixtures.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09088-7

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09088-7