From Synthesis to Catalyst Application: Educational Experiments with Zeolites for Plastic Waste Cracking and Industrially Relevant Processes

This laboratory experiment presents a set of four integrated practices involving heterogeneous catalysis for undergraduate students in chemistry, industrial chemistry, and chemical engineering. The experiments involve the synthesis, modification, characterization, and application of zeolites as solid acid catalysts in the catalytic cracking of plastic waste (PW). The synthesis and acid activation routes of the zeolites were rationalized by using simple and easy-to-use reagents. Characterization was performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the determination of catalytic activity in PW cracking was performed using simple, rapid, and safe thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The dynamic experiments enable students to understand, on a laboratory scale, the central concepts of applied catalysis and the circular economy, bringing teaching closer to the reality of industrially relevant processes.