Dynamic redox reactivation of platinum sites for long-term glycolate electrosynthesis from polyethylene terephthalate wastes.

Alternating working and nonworking potentials on platinum enables ethylene glycol-to-glycolate electrosynthesis from polyethylene terephthalate with over 3000 hours stability at ~220 mA/cm².

• Why it matters: Glycolate production is limited by toxic conventional routes and by rapid deactivation of platinum sites during electrified ethylene glycol processing from PET.
• What they did: The study uses a dynamic redox reactivation strategy that switches potentials to oxidize ethylene glycol to glycolate and chemically reduce adsorbed ethylene glycol to revive platinum activity.
• The result: An upscaled electrolyzer sustains 10 A at 1.18 V for 40 repeat batches, converting 48.0 g PET per batch to 11.6 g glycolates (52.8% yield) and producing hydrogen (~11.5 L) with ~95% yields for p-phthalic acid and NaHSO4.

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