LAUSR

Converting poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is emerged as a promising innovation for upcycling of waste plastics. However, previous solvothermal methods suffer from toxic solvent consumption, long reaction time, high pressure, and high temperature. Herein, we report the mechanochemical milling strategy to transform waste PET into a series of MOFs with high yields. Such strategy owns the merits of solvent-free, ambient reaction temperature, short running time, and easy scale-up for the massive production of MOFs. The as-prepared MOFs exhibit definite crystal structure and porous morphology composed of agglomerated nanoparticles. We prove that, under mechanochemical milling, PET is firstly decomposed into 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate, which acts as linkers to coordinate with metal ions for forming fragments, followed by the gradual arrangement of fragments into MOFs. This work not only promotes high value-added conversion of waste polyesters, but also offers a new opportunity to produce MOFs in a green and scalable manner.