Surface-Activated Mechano-Catalysis for Ambient Conversion of Plastic Waste

Improved recycling technologies can offer sustainable end-of-life options for plastic waste. While polyolefins can be converted into small hydrocarbons over acid catalysts at high temperatures, we demonstrate an alternative mechano-catalytic strategy at ambient conditions. The mechanism is fundamentally different from classical acidity-driven high-temperature approaches, exploiting mechanochemically generated radical intermediates. Surface activation of zirconia grinding spheres creates redox active surface sites directly at the point of mechanical energy input. This allows control over mechano-radical reactivity, while powder catalysts are not active. Optimized milling parameters enable the formation of 45% C_1-10 hydrocarbons from polypropylene within 1 h at ambient temperature. While mechanochemical bond scission is undesired in plastic production, we show that it can also be exploited for chemical recycling.