Green sustainable approach toward plastic waste upcycling to graphene-based nanomaterials

Accumulation of disposable plastic products with an estimated life-time of at least 400 years overcomes the world's capability to deal with them. Only a relatively small portion of plastics is being recycled mostly due to their chemical composition and high remanufacturing cost. Consequently, plastic waste accumulation in the environment became one of the most pressing environmental problems of the XXI century leading to the rapid increase in the plastic pollution crisis, with a characteristic example to be the Oceans “plastic” island. The possibility of plastic waste conversion into valuable materials such as graphene, a 2D nanomaterial with extraordinary properties and potential for utilization for a plethora of applications from electronics to biomedicine, could be a key technology in promoting green and sustainable alternatives. This chapter aims to underline the prospects and limitations of plastic waste conversion into graphene/graphite and graphene-based nanomaterials (Graphical Abstract). An emphasis would be given to the type of the source material, and the correlation of their chemical nature toward the quality and quantity of the obtained graphene nanomaterial. Furthermore, through a comparison of the conventional methods and precursors for graphene production to the plastic waste upcycling method, the ecological impact of used chemicals and byproducts will be discussed. Finally, the overview of the potential application of the produced graphene and graphene-based nanomaterials as well as the prospects of using waste materials for graphene production will be introduced. Graphical abstractDownload : Download full-size image