ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering最新文献

{"title":"When Are Anaerobic Digestion and Black Soldier Fly Bioconversion Solutions Sustainable in Humanitarian Waste Management? A Life Cycle and Feasibility Assessment","authors":"Clara Casado-Coterillo,Marta Rumayor,Beheshta Dawood,Carla Bartolomé Rodrigo,Andrea Rodenas García,Perrine Sebastien,Emilie Guilvert,Carolina Szablewski,Maria Llàcer Llàcer,Damian Kuznowicz,Anna Górska,Marie Smidova,Abigail Glaser,Andrea Motola,Gavin Moroney","doi":"10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c10451","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c10451","url":null,"abstract":"Humanitarian operations generate significant quantities of biowaste, the biodegradable fraction of organic solid waste (OFMSW), in contexts where collection, segregation, and controlled end-of-life treatment are often limited. In such settings, biological waste valorisation technologies may contribute to reducing environmental impacts while supporting local resource recovery. However, their performance depends strongly on operational and socio-economic conditions. This study assesses anaerobic digestion (AD), black soldier fly (BSF) bioconversion, and composting as organic-waste treatment options for humanitarian settings through a context-sensitive life cycle and feasibility framework. The analysis builds on evidence generated in the EU-funded Bio4HUMAN project for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Sudan (SSD) and on life cycle assessment (LCA) principles applied to the treatment of biowaste. AD, BSF, composting, and uncontrolled open dumping disposal are considered as alternative end-of-life routes. A feasibility layer is subsequently incorporated to account for key contextual factors, including waste segregation practices, contamination risk, infrastructure availability, technical capacity, output valorisation, market access, governance readiness, and health and biosafety constraints. The results indicate that neither AD nor BSF bioconversion can be considered universally preferable across humanitarian contexts. AD is most suitable where segregated organic waste, local biogas demand, operational capacity, and safe digestate valorisation are available. In contrast, BSF bioconversion showed potential for resource recovery, but its sustainability was highly sensitive to the existence of safe and locally validated outlets for larvae biomass and frass. When larvae-feed credits were reduced or removed, BSF performance declined, confirming that recovered-product credits should not be assumed in the absence of documented local valorization pathways. Under the current mixed-waste baseline and the balanced weighting case, the contextual sustainability score ranked composting as the most favourable option in both DRC and SSD, followed by modular renewable micro-AD, micro-AD, and BSF bioconversion, while open dumping was used as the current unmanaged benchmark. However, this ranking does not imply direct deployment readiness under mixed or contaminated waste conditions, since all biological routes require source-separation, contamination control, and safe output valorisation. The source-separated scenario reduced feasibility penalties for all biological options but did not automatically reverse the ranking because composting also benefits from improved waste-stream quality. Overall, the results support a context-sensitive framework combining LCA-derived environmental burdens, recovered-product credits, and feasibility penalties, rather than universal rankings, for selecting organic-waste technologies in humanitarian settings.","PeriodicalId":25,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2026-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149374679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Trade-Offs between Enzyme Stabilization and Catalytic-Site Geometry in Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents","authors":"Zafeiria Lemoni,Maria Kalogridi,Dimitra Kalfanti,Andromachi Tzani,Dimitris G. Hatzinikolaou,Anastasia Detsi,Diomi Mamma","doi":"10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c08513","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c08513","url":null,"abstract":"Thermal stability remains a major limitation in industrial biocatalysis, particularly for hydrolytic enzymes used under intensified processing conditions. This study investigated whether stabilization of industrial enzymes in natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) is accompanied by preservation of the catalytic microenvironment required for efficient catalysis. Cellulase and pectinase stability was evaluated in three NADES, betaine:glycerol (1:3, Bet:Gly), choline chloride:glycerol (1:2, ChCl:Gly), and l-proline:glycerol (1:2, Pro:Gly), each containing 20% (w/w) water as cosolvent, at 303–353 K. Deactivation kinetics showed that Bet:Gly provided the strongest stabilization for both enzymes, ChCl:Gly exhibited moderate and temperature-dependent protection, while Pro:Gly destabilized cellulase but improved pectinase stability. Thermodynamic analysis revealed possible solvent-specific non-Arrhenius behavior, while fluorescence spectroscopy supported improved tertiary-structure preservation mainly in Bet:Gly and ChCl:Gly. Molecular dynamics simulations indicated that NADES preserved the global fold of both enzymes by reducing conformational fluctuations. However, catalytic-distance analysis demonstrated that preservation of global protein structure did not necessarily translate into preservation of catalytic-site geometry, particularly for the representative cellulase model. Overall, these findings indicate an enzyme-dependent trade-off between global structural stabilization and catalytic-site geometry that could inform enzyme-specific NADES selection for more sustainable biocatalytic processes, although further catalytic activity studies are required to confirm its functional significance.","PeriodicalId":25,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2026-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149374689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Converting Waste Tires into Blue Ammonia: Safe and Sustainable Process Design, Multiobjective Optimization and Comprehensive Assessment","authors":"Jingyuan Liu,Jianzhao Zhou,Qiming Qian,Sheng Yang,Chang He,Jingzheng Ren","doi":"10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c03827","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c03827","url":null,"abstract":"Ammonia synthesis based on steam methane reforming (SMR) is characterized by intensive energy consumption and high carbon emissions. To address these limitations, novel processes integrating gasification and carbon capture technologies were proposed for converting waste tires into blue ammonia. Detailed safety, techno-economic, and life cycle assessments were conducted to evaluate comprehensive performance. Machine learning-driven multiobjective operation optimization was carried out for reducing levelized cost of ammonia (LCOA) while enhancing safety and sustainability scores based on safe-and-sustainable-by-design framework. Our results highlight the critical role of artificial neural networks in achieving efficient optimization. Additionally, the quantitative impacts of integrating various renewable energy sources were investigated. The results showed the conventional gasification (CG) integrating methyldiethanolamine (MDEA)-based carbon capture alternative achieved the optimal LCOA at 358.1 $/ton in current electricity scenario. A peak environmental sustainability score of 0.443 was achieved, outperforming traditional SMR integrating MDEA-based carbon capture pathway by 13.04%. The safest process is CG integrating monoethanolamine-based carbon capture. Under the renewable scenario, the LCA results highlighted the critical role of renewable energy integration in enhancing the environmental sustainability of waste tires-to-ammonia processes, especially achieving a 0.344 increase in environmental sustainability score with onshore wind electricity at a lower LCOA of 406.0 $/ton in plasma gasification integrating MDEA-based alternative.","PeriodicalId":25,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2026-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149374699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identification of a Novel D-alanine–D-alanine Ligase from Nocardioides kribbensis for Efficient In Vivo Biosynthesis of Shinorine in Engineered Escherichia coli","authors":"Mengting Bao,Yulei Zhang,Jiawei Meng,Zhihui Du,Dawei Ni,Zhufeng Lin,Wanmeng Mu","doi":"10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c06950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c06950","url":null,"abstract":"Shinorine, a UV-absorbing mycosporine-like amino acid (MAA), is biosynthesized from sedoheptulose 7-phosphate via a conserved gene cluster (mysA, mysB, mysC, and mysD). The final step, catalyzed by MysD, a homolog of D-alanine–D-alanine ligase (DDL), converts mycosporine-glycine to shinorine. In this study, a novel MysD from Nocardioides kribbensis was expressed, purified, and biochemically characterized. The enzyme showed optimal activity at pH 8.0 and 40 °C, with obvious enhancement by Mg2+ and K+. Kinetic analysis revealed Michaelis constants (Km) of 78.7 μM for ATP, 84 μM for the first D-alanine, and 785 μM for the second D-alanine, with a catalytic efficiency (kcat/Km) of 433 M–1 s–1. Chromosomal integration of this gene into a mycosporine-glycine-producing engineered strain enabled efficient shinorine biosynthesis. Through strain engineering combined with fed-batch fermentation, shinorine titers reached 243.36 mg/L in shake-flask culture and 1.96 g/L in fed-batch fermentation, demonstrating the potential for scalable microbial production of this natural sunscreen compound.","PeriodicalId":25,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2026-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149374688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"High-Level De Novo Biosynthesis of Apigenin Via Systematic Metabolic Engineering in Yarrowia lipolytica","authors":"Zhi-Wen Liang,Yu-Hui Wang,Bo-Wei Li,Li Sun,Xiao-Na Yang,Yun Tian,Xiang-Yang Lu,Xiao-Jun Ji,Bei-Ke Zhu,Hu-Hu Liu","doi":"10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c05209","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c05209","url":null,"abstract":"Apigenin, a bioactive flavonoid with promising nutraceutical and industrial applications, faces challenges in production due to the unsustainability of plant extraction methods. In this study, we engineered Yarrowia lipolytica as a cell factory for de novo apigenin biosynthesis via systematic metabolic engineering. Initially, the most efficient type II flavone synthase from Erigeron breviscapus (EbFNSII) was identified using whole-cell biocatalysis. Subsequently, the apigenin biosynthetic pathway was constructed in Y. lipolytica Po1f (Δku70). Then, using an exogenous precursor feeding strategy, naringenin was identified as a crucial node in carbon metabolic flux. Additionally, we optimized the shikimic acid pathway by inhibiting competing pathways and overexpressing essential genes, thereby increasing the availability of L-tyrosine. Next, increasing the supply of malonyl-CoA further boosted carbon metabolic flux, which enhanced apigenin production by 2.41-fold, reaching 58.26 mg/L in shake flasks. Finally, an apigenin titer of 1236.25 mg/L was achieved by the engineered strain YLAPI-8 in a 2.4-L bioreactor under fed-batch fermentation, representing the highest titer reported to date. This study establishes an efficient platform for apigenin production and offers guidance for achieving high titers of flavonoids in Y. lipolytica.","PeriodicalId":25,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2026-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149374691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fluorine-Stabilized High-Valence Cobalt on Silicalite-1 Zeolite Synergizing with Adjacent Silanol Groups for Propane Dehydrogenation via Polarized C–H Bond Activation","authors":"Keding Huang,Xiaotao Yu,Yeqing Wang,Min Guo,Jiaqi Fan,Song Lu,Jiadi Ying,Tiancun Liu,Qi Shen,Yinying Jin,Zhixin Yu","doi":"10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c10683","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c10683","url":null,"abstract":"Propane dehydrogenation (PDH) is vital to meet the rapid global demand for propylene. However, non-noble cobalt-based catalysts still suffer from inefficient C–H activation, necessitating precise microenvironment engineering. Herein, an NH4F-assisted in situ crystallization strategy for silicalite-1 (S-1) zeolite is developed to tailor both the framework structure and Co oxidation state. OH-FTIR spectra confirm that fluorine (F) incorporation heals silanol defects. At optimal F/Si = 0.23, F mediates interfacial interaction between high-valence Coδ+ sites and Si–O–F moieties. Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) mapping further reveals spatial colocalization of F and Co species. In the PDH reaction, electron-deficient Coδ+ species promote polarization and weakening of the inert C–H bonds of propane, initiating dehydrogenation; the activated H atoms are subsequently transferred to adjacent silanol groups (Si–OH), where they recombine on adjacent surface sites and desorb as H2. Consequently, the optimized Co2/S-1-23F (where “23F” refers to an F/Si molar ratio of 0.23 used in the synthesis gel) catalyst achieves 57.4% initial propane conversion and >97% propylene selectivity at 550 °C. Comprehensive characterizations indicate that F acts as a dual electronic and structural additive, and optimal PDH performance originates from balanced multifunctionality instead of maximum fluorine loading, offering a practical strategy for designing high-performance non-noble PDH catalysts.","PeriodicalId":25,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2026-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149374693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Thermally Treated Oyster Shell Exacerbates Phosphorus Immobilization during Acidic Soil Amendment","authors":"Yuqing Liu,Jianfeng Xu,Yiqian Zhou,Tao Liang,Min Tang,Chenyang Zhai,Jianguo Li,Jiasu Zou,Wei Hao,Bin Liu,Fangxin Chen,Hang Zhai","doi":"10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c09935","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c09935","url":null,"abstract":"Soil acidification constrains crop productivity, and oyster shell (OS) waste is increasingly used as a sustainable liming material. Phosphorus (P), one of the three essential macronutrients for crops, can react with calcium (Ca)-containing materials during liming and thereby affect its bioavailability. However, cooking-related thermal treatments alter the physicochemical properties of OS, and whether this alteration affects phosphorus bioavailability during liming remains unclear. We hypothesized that thermal loss of the OS organic matrix strengthens calcium (Ca2+)-phosphate (HnPO4(3–n)–) interactions, promotes calcium phosphate (CaP) nucleation, reshapes soil microbial P-cycling responses, and thereby reduces plant-available phosphorus despite effective acidity neutralization. To test this, we compared raw (ROS), steamed (SOS), and grilled (GOS) OSs via organic matrix characterization, binding energy analyses for interfacial mechanisms, and pot experiments with maize in acidic soil for phosphorus bioavailability. Thermal treatment progressively degraded the organic matrix, particularly carboxyl-rich proteins, and subsequently enhanced phosphate binding on CaCO3. These stronger interactions accelerated heterogeneous CaP nucleation and promoted the formation of apatite-like CaP phases on thermally treated surfaces. In pot experiments, ROS increased maize shoot biomass and phosphorus uptake relative to SOS and GOS, and maintained higher soil-available phosphorus with lower Ca-bound phosphorus fractions, despite all treatments raising soil pH to a similar extent. At the microbial level, thermally treated OS was associated with a predicted phosphorus-starvation response and reduced soil phosphatase activities, whereas ROS sustained a more active microbial phosphorus-mineralizing community. Together, the abiotic interfacial reactions and the coupled microbial responses acted in concert to reduce phosphorus bioavailability under thermally treated OS, while ROS preserved both the organic-rich surface and microbial phosphorus turnover. Collectively, these results show that thermal treatment of OS enhances phosphate binding and CaP immobilization, reducing phosphorus bioavailability despite comparable acidity neutralization, and identify raw oyster shell as the preferred amendment for preserving phosphorus availability in acidic soils.","PeriodicalId":25,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2026-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149374681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Graphene/Si Heterojunction Platform with a Multifunctional Atomic Bridging Layer for Photoelectrochemical CO2 Reduction","authors":"Hsuan-Yu Chen,Po-Hsien Wu,Sheng-Yu Yu,Chen Chang,Tsung-Hsin Liu,Ruo-Nong Song,Jr-Wen Lin,Zih-Wei Cyue,Kwun-Man Chan,Shao-Ku Huang,Cheng-Ying Chen,Ting-Shan Chan,Jeng-Lung Chen,Chih-Wen Pao,Chun-Wei Chen,Heng-Liang Wu","doi":"10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c06001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c06001","url":null,"abstract":"The facile integration and stability of Si-based photoelectrode architectures are the remaining challenges in the photoelectrochemical (PEC) conversion of CO2 to fuels. In this work, the single-atomic-layer graphene is used as a functional bridging layer to integrate both Si photocathodes and photoanodes, which enable the direct electrodeposition of metal-based electrocatalysts (Cu, Ag, and In–Sn alloys) and a semiconductor-based catalyst Ni–Fe layered double hydroxide (Ni–Fe LDH) on graphene/Si heterojunction electrodes for PEC CO2 reduction and O2 evolution reactions, respectively. We demonstrate a PEC device with a full-cell configuration consisting of an In–Sn/graphene/Si heterojunction photocathode and a Ni–Fe LDH/graphene/Si heterojunction photoanode, exhibiting a reduced photovoltage of ∼1080 mV compared to the electrochemical counterparts. A self-powered PEC CO2 reduction with a solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency of 3.2% can be obtained by integrating the graphene/Si heterojunction photocathode and photoanode with a Si photovoltaic. In addition, in situ PEC X-ray absorption spectroscopy analyses show that the electrodeposited catalysts on the graphene layer lead to the transport of photogenerated electrons and preserve durability throughout the reaction. Utilizing graphene as a chemically inert atomic bridging layer enables the seamless integration of Si photoelectrodes with various catalysts, providing a platform for the PEC CO2 reduction reaction.","PeriodicalId":25,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.4,"publicationDate":"2026-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149374684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ionic Potential Regulation Coupled with Multiphase Sodium Storage Engineering for Advanced Cathode Materials","authors":"Que Huang,&nbsp;Rui Du,&nbsp;Mengxian Zhang,&nbsp;Hongen Shi,&nbsp;Shanghong Duan,&nbsp;Li Guo,&nbsp;Yanjun Chen","doi":"10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c05876","DOIUrl":"10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c05876","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Currently, the intercalated MoSe₂ acts as a heterogeneous engineering regulator to modulate the electronic structure of Na₃V₂(PO₄)₃ (NVP). By regulating the amount of MoO₂ added, we effectively control the coating morphology of MoSe₂ on the NVP surface, successfully preparing the flocculent NVP@MoSe₂-2 sample. Ex situ XRD/XPS analysis elucidate that the decomposition of MoSe₂ under high-voltage stimulation generates Mo⁴⁺ and Se^2–. With the higher ionic potential of Mo⁴⁺ (6.15 Å^–1 vs. 4.69 Å^–1 of V³⁺), trace Mo⁴⁺ substitution for V³⁺ results in charge rearrangement, suggesting an increase in the electron-cloud density around Mo⁴⁺ and therefore the emergence of electronic delocalization effects of V³⁺. The modified V reveals stronger coordination properties and electrochemical activity, as confirmed by XAFS. Partial V⁴⁺ oxidizes Mo⁴⁺ to activate the extra redox couple of Mo⁴⁺/Mo⁵⁺, forming the second reversible discharge plateau at 3.9 V, further increasing the capacity and energy density. Meanwhile, the intercalated MoSe₂ could provide rich reactive sites for Na⁺ to produce the intermediate solid-solution phase of Na_<em>x</em>MoSe₂, elevating reversible capacity. Furthermore, DFT calculations demonstrate that the NVP/MoSe₂ heterostructure exhibits a zero-band-gap electronic structure and modified charge rearrangement, indicating its superior electronic structure. Finally, the modified NVP@MoSe₂-2 delivers a high capacity value of 130.6 mAh g^–1 at 0.1 C, and it maintains 95.1 and 87.9 mAh g^–1 at 5 and 10 C after 1200 and 2000 cycles, corresponding to capacity retention rates of 97.1 and 94.1%.</p>","PeriodicalId":25,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering","volume":"14 44","pages":"20173–20184"},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2026-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149241507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ultra-Cost-Effective Compatible Separator Derived from Waste Masks for Prominent Stable Near-Neutral and Alkaline Zinc Batteries","authors":"Aihua Li,&nbsp;Feng Wang,&nbsp;Na Qiu,&nbsp;Hailin Cong,&nbsp;Guangmeng Qu,&nbsp;Liqiang Xu","doi":"10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c06982","DOIUrl":"10.1021/acssuschemeng.6c06982","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Aqueous zinc-based batteries (AZBs) demonstrate significant promise for future large-scale energy storage due to their low cost, high safety, environmental friendliness. However, challenges remain, particularly concerning the zinc metal anode, where zinc dendrite growth and interfacial side reactions lead to poor reversibility and short lifespan. Herein, we develop a mask-modified composite membrane (MMCM) fabricated primarily from inexpensive disposable masks: nonwoven fabrics (NWFs) and melt-blown cloth (MBC). Based on their porosity and hydrophilic/hydrophobic properties, these materials are further processed using silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and polyacrylamide polymer. The resulting composite separator exhibits exceptional water retention capability and robust resistance to corrosion. It is worth noting that the AgNPs located near the zinc anode side effectively homogenize the Zn²⁺ ion flux across the anode surface, which suppresses interfacial side reactions and promotes uniform and reversible zinc plating/stripping. Consequently, the MMCM separator significantly extends the lifespan of the zinc metal anode in both near-neutral and alkaline electrolytes. Furthermore, assembled full cells utilizing this separator in both environments demonstrate superior rate capability and remarkable long-term cycling stability. This work presents a cost-effective, high-performance separator solution derived from waste masks, offering a promising approach to enhance the practicality and sustainability of AZBs across diverse electrolyte systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":25,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering","volume":"14 44","pages":"20265–20275"},"PeriodicalIF":7.6,"publicationDate":"2026-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149241508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}