Achieving Near‐Complete Dechlorination of Poly(vinyl chloride) via Electrochemical Reduction

Despite its ubiquity, scalable recycling of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) remains elusive. One challenge is that the waste streams can be contaminated with plasticizers. Herein, we present a strategy that repurposes these plasticizers as redox mediators in a controlled-voltage electrolysis to dechlorinate PVC. Five common plasticizers were evaluated as redox mediators. In addition, using voltage limits via a galvanostatic cycling with potential limitation protocol attenuated deleterious mediator decomposition. Among the plasticizers screened, trioctyl trimellitate enabled up to 97% dechlorination of PVC across a range of PVC samples, including commercial-grade rigid pipe and flexible tubing, and scales (up to 0.5 g), illustrating broad applicability. This method achieves near-quantitative PVC dechlorination in a simple, one-pot transformation while simultaneously utilizing the liberated chloride, offering a promising solution for transforming waste PVC into recycled products.