Ren, S.Xu, X.Zhu, Z.S.Yang, Y.Tian, W.Hu, K.Zhong, S.Yi, J.Duan, X.Wang, S.2024-09-112024-09-112024Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 2024; 342:123410-1-123410-110926-33731873-3883https://hdl.handle.net/2440/142258Plastic wastes were catalytically transformed into different structured carbons as effective catalysts for peroxymonosulfate activation to degrade organic pollutants in water and the catalytic conversion mechanism was comprehensively investigated. A salt template-based carbonization approach was successfully developed to catalytically converting high-density polyethylene (HDPE) into diverse carbon materials, such as core-shell carbon composites, nanosheets, and their hybrids. The morphology and proportions of structure defective carbon were found to be controlled by a NiCl2 to HDPE ratio. Carbon nanosheets performed excellent catalytic efficiency in peroxymonosulfate activation toward phenol oxidation, due to a high content of reactive defects via a nonradical electron-transfer mechanism. More importantly, deliberate experiment design and kinetic analyses were employed to illustrate the artifact of radical scavengers (e.g., ethanol) in mechanistic investigation for nonradical/radical reaction. This work provides an upcycle approach for waste plastics into carbocatalysts and new insight to the conversion process and advanced water purification.en© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Plastics; Carbon nanosheets; Persulfate activation; Pollutant degradation; Radical scavengersJournal article10.1016/j.apcatb.2023.1234102024-09-06660124Ren, S. [0000-0002-4475-6331]Zhu, Z.S. [0000-0001-8821-2136]Tian, W. [0000-0002-7503-5481] [0000-0002-9896-1154]Hu, K. [0000-0002-8598-6336]Zhong, S. [0000-0001-6103-5125]Duan, X. [0000-0001-9635-5807]Wang, S. [0000-0002-1751-9162]