Catalytic degradation of PP with an Fe/activated carbon catalyst

We investigated the function of Fe and activated carbon (AC) as a catalyst by comparing Fe/AC with Fe/SiO₂ or AC, and also the effect of H₂ as a reaction gas on the product distribution in the catalytic degradation of polypropylene. Supported Fe promotes H₂ consumption to decompose solid residues, and AC support degrades heavy oil to produce light oil. As a result, using Fe/AC as a catalyst gives the maximum yield of the liquid product. For the reaction conditions, with a high reaction temperature or a long reaction time, the product distribution is more influenced by the thermal degradation than by the catalytic degradation. For the amount of Fe to load, 5wt% is the optimum condition in our reaction system. We demonstrated the mechanism of the degradation of polyolefins with hydrogen-capping catalysts.