The breakthrough offers a promising new approach to reducing plastic pollution through photocatalysis, a metabolic pathway also used by fung
from the article
Plastic waste, notably microplastics, has been found across many of the planet’s ecosystems, raising concerns about threats to terrestrial and marine life as well as human health. Plastic recycling rates remain low around the globe. To tackle this problem, the team developed a bio-inspired photocatalysis process using iron atoms embedded in carbon nitride, a way that certain types of fungi break down organic matter using enzymes. ...
While still at the laboratory stage, the team envisions that this approach could be adapted for scalable, solar-driven recycling and environmental cleanup and the photocatalytic upcycling system can be further enhanced through strategic engineering of the materials and manufacturing processes.
