Polyethylene (PE) is the most popular plastic globally, and the widespread use of plastics has created severe environmental issues. High energy consumption in the current process makes its recycling a challenging problem. In our report, the depolymerization of high-density PE was conducted in various liquid-phase solvents with the Ru/C catalyst under relatively mild conditions. The maximum yields of the jet-fuel- and lubricant-range hydrocarbons were 60.8 and 31.6 wt %, respectively. After optimization of the reaction conditions (220°C and 60 bar of H₂), the total yield of liquid hydrocarbon products reached approximately 90 wt % within only 1 h. The product distribution could be tuned by the H₂ partial pressure, the active-metal particle size, and the solvents. The solvation of PE in the different solvents determined the depolymerization reaction kinetics, which was confirmed by the molecular dynamics simulation results.

聚乙烯 (PE) 是全球最受欢迎的塑料，塑料的广泛使用造成了严重的环境问题。当前过程中的高能耗使其回收成为一个具有挑战性的问题。在我们的报告中，高密度 PE 的解聚是在各种液相溶剂中用 Ru/C 催化剂在相对温和的条件下进行的。喷气燃料和润滑剂范围的碳氢化合物的最大产率分别为 60.8 和 31.6 重量％。在优化反应条件（220°C 和 60 bar H ₂）后，液态烃产品的总产率仅在 1 小时内就达到了约 90 wt%。产品分布可以通过 H ₂分压、活性金属颗粒大小和溶剂。PE在不同溶剂中的溶剂化决定了解聚反应动力学，分子动力学模拟结果证实了这一点。