An international team of experts undertaking fundamental research has developed a way of using polyethylene waste (PE) as a feedstock and converting it into valuable chemicals via light-driven photocatalysis. The University of Adelaide’s Professor Shizhang Qiao, Chair of Nanotechnology and Director, Centre for Materials in Energy and Catalysis, at the School of Chemical Engineering, led the team that published their findings in the journal Science Advances. “We have upcycled polyethylene plastic waste into ethylene and propionic acid with high selectivity using atomically dispersed metal catalysts,” said Professor Qiao. “This waste-to-value strategy is primarily implemented with four components, including plastic waste, water, sunlight, and non-toxic photocatalysts that harness solar energy and boost the reaction. A typical photocatalyst is titanium dioxide with isolated palladium atoms on its surface.”