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The chemical recycling of polyester wastes is of great significance for sustainable development, which also provides an opportunity to access various oxygen-containing chemicals, but generally suffers from low efficiency or separation difficulty. Herein, we report anatase TiO2 supported Ru and Mo dual-atom catalysts, which achieve transformation of various polyesters into corresponding diols in 100% selectivity via hydrolysis and subsequent hydrogenation in water under mild conditions (e.g., 160 °C, 4 MPa). Compelling evidence is provided for the coexistence of Ru single-atom and O-bridged Ru and Mo dual-atom sites within this kind of catalysts. It is verified that the Ru single-atom sites activate H2 for hydrogenation of carboxylic acid derived from polyester hydrolysis, and the O-bridged Ru and Mo dual-atom sites suppress hydrodeoxygenation of the resultant alcohols due to a high reaction energy barrier. Notably, this kind of dual-atom catalysts can be regenerated with high activity and stability. This work presents an effective way to reconstruct polyester wastes into valuable diols, which may have promising application potential. Chemical recycling of polyester wastes is of great significance for sustainable development. Here the authors report a Ru and Mo dual-atom catalyst for reconstructing polyester wastes into diols in water under mild conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CO2 hydrogenation to free formic acid is an interesting topic, and low‐cost and high‐performance catalysts are highly desirable. This work presents a simple and green strategy to prepare high‐performance Ru catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation using cellulose and phytic acid composite (CPC) as support to complex with Ru(III). The CPC support prepared with assistance of 1‐butyl‐3‐methyl imidazolium chloride exhibits porous structure with abundant free −OH and −PO4 groups that can complex with Ru(III). The CPC complexed Ru catalyst (e. g., CPC‐Ru‐1) showed much higher activity for CO2 hydrogenation to formic acid in 1‐butyl‐3‐methyl imidazolium acetate than the reported heterogeneous Ru catalysts. Especially, CPC‐Ru‐1 with 0.094 wt% Ru afforded formic acid in selectivity >99 % with a turnover number around 1.8×104 and an initial production rate of 15.21 mol ⋅ g−1 ⋅ h−1 within the first 2 h at 120 °C. This catalyst is recyclable and stable without obvious activity loss after 5 runs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]