Light breaks plastics

What if we harnessed sunlight to precisely break down and recycle plastics? This appealing scientific question fuels Fabian's academic research.

Light as an abundant, versatile, and green energy source holds the key to transforming the way we approach plastic recycling. Via photochemical reactions, stable chemical bonds within the polymer backbone can be selectively cleaved, enabling the extraction of monomeric building blocks. These monomers in turn can be utilized to create new polymers, mirroring the material properties of the original ones—the fundamental principle of chemical closed-loop recycling. Fabian presented this concept in the recent eye-opener video, aimed at rendering science more accessible to a wider audience. The full video can be found here: https://www.eye-openers.nl/nl/seethecast/fabian-eisenreich/

Furthermore, Fabian authored a minireview article for Angewandte Chemie, delving into this captivating topic and spotlighting notable advancements over the recent years. This article can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/anie.202301303