ArticleAngewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)2026
Overcoming Hydrophobicity with Water Enables Ultrafast Hydrolysis of Waste Polyethylene Terephthalate at Very Mild Conditions.
Article in Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Efficient Chemical Recycling of Polyester in Plastic Waste: A Heated High-Ethanol Alkaline Aqueous Process.Organic process research & development · 2026Article
- Overcoming Hydrophobicity with Water Enables Ultrafast Hydrolysis of Waste Polyethylene Terephthalate at Very Mild Conditions.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Chemical recycling of plastics holds great promise but remains constrained by sustainability issues, with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) epitomizing this challenge. Herein, we introduce a conceptually novel strategy that overcomes PET's intrinsic hydrophobicity by physically re-engineering the polymer's microstructure to enable ultrafast alkaline hydrolysis under exceptionally mild conditions. We leverage the ability of propylene carbonate (PC)-an inexpensive, commercial, green solvent-to selectively dissolve PET, to thermally induce phase separation, and subsequently act as a carrier for water insertion between polymer chains. Upon complete PC replacement, the water uptake exceeds twice the polymer mass, preventing chain re-compaction and establishing an interfacial environment that facilitates hydroxyl ion diffusion to ester bonds and depolymerization with minimal alkali consumption. As a result, water-swollen PET fully depolymerizes (96% TPA yield) at atmospheric pressure within 5 min at 90
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Registered trials
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