Tandem Methanolysis and Catalytic Transfer Hydrogenolysis of Polyethylene Terephthalate to p-Xylene Over Cu/ZnZrO Catalysts.

We demonstrate a novel approach of utilizing methanol (CHOH) in a dual role for (1) the methanolysis of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to form dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) at near-quantitative yields (~97 %) and (2) serving as an in situ H source for the catalytic transfer hydrogenolysis (CTH) of DMT to p-xylene (PX, ~63 % at 240 °C and 16 h) on a reducible ZnZrO supported Cu catalyst (i.e., Cu/ZnZrO).