The Development of Hetero structured Nanofibrous Microrobot for Upcycling of Microplastics Integrated with Hydrogen Evolution: From Trash to Treasure

Descrizione del progetto

Il potere del «trash to treasure» nella produzione di combustibile H2 pulito

Le materie plastiche, parte integrante della civiltà moderna, rappresentano oggi una crisi: oltre il 40 % degli 8 miliardi di tonnellate prodotte si trasforma in inquinanti ambientali persistenti. Le microplastiche e le nanoplastiche, sottoprodotto dei rifiuti plastici che permane per anni, aggravano il problema. Gli sforzi scientifici per rimediare ai rifiuti di microplastica hanno rilevato lacune nella conoscenza, rendendo necessario un approccio nuovo. In questo contesto, il progetto PlastiFuel, finanziato dall’UE, si concentrerà sull’upcycling chimico. Il progetto mira in particolare a convertire le microplastiche in prezioso combustibile a idrogeno attraverso la foto-riforma, offrendo una soluzione trasformativa alla pressante sfida globale dell’inquinamento da plastica. Si utilizzeranno nanomateriali eterogenei, in particolare architetture nanofibrose di carbonio 3D semoventi. Tale approccio promette vantaggi economici e un salto verso un’economia senza inquinamento.

Obiettivo

Plastics are playing indispensable parts in the modern civilization. Given its beneficial characteristics, it would be hard to envisage a world without plastics. However, a more sustainable method to manage plastics after usage is critically needed in the present scenario. So far wide variety of plastics have been produced over 8 billion tons, out of which about 40% have been superfluous. The plastic waste ends up as a litter, in the environment will become small fragments as microplastics (MiP)/ Nanoplastics (NiP) and only degrade slowly in natural environments and persist over years. In past decades, scientific community has investigated the efficient remediation technologies towards MiP waste. However, contemplating the MiP waste reforming to value added material, still has profound knowledge gaps. The chemical upcycling suggests a promising approach to deal with the challenges triggered by plastic wastes. Hydrogen could become an excellent energy carrier to appease the energy demand of humankind as a sustainable future alternative energy economy. The conversion of MiP into value added hydrogen fuel by photo-reforming is a newly emerging field with enormous economic potential. To better combatting the global challenges of MiP contamination, heterogenous nanomaterials play vital role due its surface functionality. The present proposed work underlines the on-site upgrading of MiP with self-propelled heterostructured 3D carbon nanofibrous based architectures (carbon-MXene/Fe-Mo2N) will be used for hydrogen evolution by photo-electrocatalytic method. These present approaches help to demonstrate ‘trash to treasure’ generation of clean H2 fuel on plastic upcycling to overcome the economical hurdle and building a pollution free economy. It helps inspiring more electrocatalytic process based fuel production in future energy.