Upcycling waste PET and CO2 to useful chemicals: Multi-functional catalysis at its best

Abstract

In a recent article in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Ding Ma and colleagues demonstrate that, with the right multifunctional catalyst, everything is possible: through the synergetic coupling of three different reactions, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and CO2 can be transformed into to dimethyl cyclohexanedicarboxylate or p-xylene, two chemical intermediates with high added value.