Plastic waste to fuels by hydrocracking at mild conditions.

Single-use plastics impose an enormous environmental threat, but their recycling, especially of polyolefins, has been proven challenging. We report a direct method to selectively convert polyolefins to branched, liquid fuels including diesel, jet, and gasoline-range hydrocarbons, with high yield up to 85% over Pt/WO/ZrO and HY zeolite in hydrogen at temperatures as low as 225°C. The process proceeds via tandem catalysis with initial activation of the polymer primarily over Pt, with subsequent cracking over the acid sites of WO/ZrO and HY zeolite, isomerization over WO/ZrO sites, and hydrogenation of olefin intermediates over Pt.

Optimizing the temporal dynamics of light to human perception.

No previous research has tuned the temporal characteristics of light-emitting devices to enhance brightness perception in human vision, despite the potential for significant power savings. The role of stimulus duration on perceived contrast is unclear, due to contradiction between the models proposed by Bloch and by Broca and Sulzer over 100 years ago. We propose that the discrepancy is accounted for by the observer's "inherent expertise bias," a type of experimental bias in which the observer's life-long experience with interpreting the sensory world overcomes perceptual ambiguities and biases experimental outcomes.