Advances and Outlook of In Situ Characterization Techniques for Photocatalytic Reforming of Plastic Wastes

Photocatalytic reforming of plastic waste has emerged as an effective route to resolving the challenge of “white pollution”. The photocatalytic process can utilize solar energy to convert plastics into valuable fuels and chemicals under mild conditions while reducing the emission of harmful substances. Recently, tremendous progress has been made in the development of efficient photocatalysts for plastic reforming. However, challenges remain in fully understanding the charge carrier kinetics, intermediate reaction pathways, and surface transformations during light-induced plastic reforming. Notably, in situ characterization techniques provide a means to dynamically observe the catalyst structure, surface state, and reaction intermediates during the photocatalytic process, providing key in situ information to reveal charge kinetics and catalytic reaction mechanisms. Thus, our review will systematically discuss the efforts of researchers in recent years to explore photocatalytic plastic reforming by using in situ characterization techniques. It will particularly focus on the contributions of various in situ routes to explore the reaction mechanism. Moreover, the existing scientific challenges and future research directions in this area are introduced and highlighted. This perspective is expected to provide insights into the reaction mechanism of photocatalytic plastic reforming and contribute to designing high-performance photocatalysts for the upcycling of real-world plastic wastes into fuels and chemicals.