Prof. Dr. Barış Kışkan and his team completed their research that can be future application for polymer recycling, started with the late Prof. Dr. Yusuf Yağcı, and presented their work in a prestigious journal.

by Zeynep Kalaycıoğlu | Aug 15, 2024
World-renowned and beloved late Prof. Dr. Yusuf Yağcı, started a groundbreaking research project to solve one of the most important problems of our age: the recycling of plastics and their reintegration into the circular economy.

Prof. Dr. Barış Kışkan and his team completed their research that can be future application for polymer recycling, started with the late Prof. Dr. Yusuf Yağcı, and presented their work in a prestigious journal.

World-renowned and beloved late Prof. Dr. Yusuf Yağcı, started a groundbreaking research project to solve one of the most important problems of our age: the recycling of plastics and their reintegration into the circular economy. After his premature and heartbreaking death, Prof. Dr. Barış Kışkan took responsibility for the project and with his dedicated team, completed the research successfully. They have published this groundbreaking work in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering with quite good impact factor of 7.9. The team was aimed to honoured Prof. Dr. Yusuf Yağcı's vision and legacy by dedicating this article to his memory.

Upcycling/recycling of waste polymers to reduce the exponentially increasing plastic pollution is an environmental subject of great importance. Accordingly, in this work, we propose the use of an “all-in-one” photolytic hydrogen atom transfer (photo-HAT) reagent (phenacyl bromide) that can in situ generate bromine radicals, acetophenone, HBr, and H2O2, resulting in a total of four well-established, potent intermediates for the photodegradation/photodepolymerization of waste polystyrene (PS) foam. Under ambient conditions, using ethyl acetate solvent and the stated photo-HAT catalyst, waste PS (Mn > 120 kg/mol) breaks down to oligomers with less than eight styrene units (Mn < 0.76 kg/mol) and to several organic compounds, such as aromatic ketones, oxygenated alkenes in conjunction with acetophenone and trace benzoic acid. A plausible reaction mechanism demonstrating the role of each in situ generated intermediate involved in this photodegradation is proposed. Herein, we present an efficient metal-free photo-oxidative degradation method for commercial PS using a cheap organic reagent at ambient sustainable conditions. Ultimately, this study provides a promising alternative to recent waste polymer valorization methods involving toxic transition metal salts and halogenated solvents.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.4c02871