Congratulations to Lakshmiprasad for Front Cover in ChemCatChem!
- FEWLS Team
- Apr 17
- 2 min read
The FEWLS Team has the pleasure to announce the publication of a new review article led by Lakshmiprasad Gurrala entitled "Supercritical Fluids for Enhanced Chemical Transformation of Postconsumer Plastics: A Review". The review article talks about the impact of sub and supercritical fluids on chemical transformations of waste plastics, describing recent advances in the use of supercritical organic solvents and water as reaction media for plastics recycling, and latest advancements in simultaneous convertion of CO2 and waste plastics.
This work was selected to be in the front cover of the ChemCatChem Volume 17, Issue 7, published on April 4, 2025. The artwork for this cover (in the left) was created by the talented artist and scientist Rita Clare. Check out her outstanding work in her website: https://www.scivetica.com.
If you are interested in this work, please check out the full manuscript in the publisher's website:
Congratulations to Lakshmiprasad and thank you to everyone who made this work possible!
Supercritical Fluids for Enhanced Chemical Transformation of Postconsumer Plastics: A Review
Lakshmiprasad Gurrala, Ana Rita C. Morais*
ABSTRACT: Various chemical transformation approaches are being actively developed to address the environmental accumulation of plastic waste. However, most postconsumer plastics are heterogeneous, exhibit high melt viscosity, and are insoluble in most conventional solvents. Such properties result in transport-limiting chemical transformations, low conversion rates, and low product selectivity. Although supercritical fluids (SCFs) have been a matter of continuing scientific interest in several mass-transfer processes, the use of SCFs as tunable media for the chemical transformation of postconsumer plastics is still in its early stages, but has rapidly advanced in recent years. Therefore, this review reports on the current state-of-art of chemical transformation of plastics using SCFs. It addresses the effects of sub and supercritical CO2 (scCO2) on solvolysis-based technologies. Additionally, it reviews recent advances on the use of supercritical organic solvents (e.g., ethanol, methanol) and supercritical water (SCW) as reaction media for the solvolysis and liquefaction of plastics, respectively, and the latest developments in the simultaneous conversion of CO2 and waste plastics. Overall, developing technologies that minimize mass transfer limitations during the chemical transformation of plastics is critical to overcoming some of the major bottlenecks hampering product yield and selectively, and ultimately the economic viability of plastics recycling and upcycling.
FEWLS TEAM
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