Chiral Heterojunctions for Spin‐Enhanced Photoreforming of Plastic Waste

ABSTRACT Manipulating the spin state of charge carriers via the chiral‐induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect enhances charge carrier dynamics and lowers kinetic barriers, thereby advancing the photocatalytic upcycling of plastics into renewable chemicals. Here, a chiral‐ligand‐induced interfacial assembly strategy was developed to construct heterojunctions for waste plastics photoreforming. Enantiopure cysteine grafted onto MOF‐808 directs the uniform growth of a TpPa‐COF shell enabling self‐adaptive lattice matching. The heterojunctions exploit the CISS effect to regulate the spin alignment of photogenerated charge carriers. Spin‐polarized electrons are funneled to Pt single atoms, delivering an H 2 evolution rate of 1255.74 µmol g −1 h −1 . During oxidation of polyethylene terephthalate‐derived ethylene glycol, spin‐polarized holes on Pt clusters favor the parallel spin alignment of *OH intermediates, directing the reaction pathway on chiral catalysts toward C2‐retained glycolic acid (865.96 µmol g −1 h −1 ; 90.53% selectivity). In contrast, antiparallel spin alignment on achiral counterparts drives C‐C bond cleavage, yielding the C1 product formic acid. Scalable synthesis, outdoor testing, and techno‐economic analysis demonstrate the practical viability of this approach for solar‐driven waste plastic upcycling.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Materials
Published
2026-09-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.75215
Primary Topic
Advanced Polymer Synthesis and Characterization
Type
article
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Chiral Heterojunctions for Spin‐Enhanced Photoreforming of Plastic Waste

Chongli Zhong, Jiandong Pang, Shuai Yuan, Baipeng Yin et al.
Advanced Materials
Advanced Polymer Synthesis and Characterization
article

Chiral Heterojunctions for Spin‐Enhanced Photoreforming of Plastic Waste

Chongli Zhong, Jiandong Pang, Shuai Yuan, Baipeng Yin, Hongliang Huang, Jian Li, Chuang Zhang, Yong Xu, Wenli Zhang, Zhenfa Wu
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Manipulating the spin state of charge carriers via the chiral‐induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect enhances charge carrier dynamics and lowers kinetic barriers, thereby advancing the photocatalytic upcycling of plastics into renewable chemicals. Here, a chiral‐ligand‐induced interfacial assembly strategy was developed to construct heterojunctions for waste plastics photoreforming. Enantiopure cysteine grafted onto MOF‐808 directs the uniform growth of a TpPa‐COF shell enabling self‐adaptive lattice matching. The heterojunctions exploit the CISS effect to regulate the spin alignment of photogenerated charge carriers. Spin‐polarized electrons are funneled to Pt single atoms, delivering an H 2 evolution rate of 1255.74 µmol g −1 h −1 . During oxidation of polyethylene terephthalate‐derived ethylene glycol, spin‐polarized holes on Pt clusters favor the parallel spin alignment of *OH intermediates, directing the reaction pathway on chiral catalysts toward C2‐retained glycolic acid (865.96 µmol g −1 h −1 ; 90.53% selectivity). In contrast, antiparallel spin alignment on achiral counterparts drives C‐C bond cleavage, yielding the C1 product formic acid. Scalable synthesis, outdoor testing, and techno‐economic analysis demonstrate the practical viability of this approach for solar‐driven waste plastic upcycling.

Advanced Materials
Xiamen University (CN), Tiangong University (CN), Nankai University (CN), Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (CN), Tan Kah Kee Innovation Laboratory (CN), Institute of Physics (CN), Nanjing University (CN)
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Openalex Percentile: Top 23%
Advanced Polymer Synthesis and Characterization
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