AccScience Publishing / EER / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/EER025480084
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Synergistic effects and mechanism of hazardous chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbon formation during plastics combustion: A multiscale study

Yin Wang1 ,  Lei Xiong1 ,  Xingxiang Wang1 ,  Zehua Huang2 ,  Jiangbing Li1* ,  Zhenglei Wu2*
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1 Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, China
2 Xinjiang Jintai Advanced Materials Technology Co., Ltd, Huyanghe, Xinjiang, China
EER, 025480084 https://doi.org/10.36922/EER025480084
Received: 30 November 2025 | Revised: 3 February 2026 | Accepted: 3 February 2026 | Published online: 27 March 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

The combustion of waste plastics provides critical insights for researchers addressing environmental challenges. This study systematically investigates the combustion behavior, reaction kinetics, and mechanisms of polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and their ternary blend (PP:PS:PVC). Headspace gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis showed that the emitted volatile organic compounds ranged from volatile to semi-volatile regimes, with saturation mass concentrations spanning 0 μg·m−3 < log10C0 < 10 μg·m−3. Co-combustion substantially increased the relative abundance of oxygenated species, such as aldehydes, ketones, esters, and acids, compared with single-component plastics. Two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy indicated that the order of gas evolution was: gaseous acids, residual functional groups, aldehydes, ketones, esters, and, finally, aliphatic hydrocarbons, suggesting premature oxidation in the blend. Iso-conversional kinetic analysis showed that PVC had a significant catalytic effect, reducing the activation energy for PVC dehydrochlorination by approximately 40 kJ·mol−1 and for residual carbon oxidation by about 100 kJ·mol−1 in the blend compared with pure PVC. Cone calorimetry showed that PS had the highest total smoke release (3,188 m2·m−2) and PVC produced the highest carbon monoxide yield (0.192 kg·kg−1), indicating a greater hazard. The ternary blend showed an increased carbon monoxide yield of 0.183 kg·kg−1 compared with either PP or PS alone. Reactive force field simulations provided atomic-level evidence that PVC-derived chlorine radicals attack PP and PS chains, accelerate radical-driven oxidation, and promote the formation of chlorinated aromatics, such as chlorostyrene (C8H7Cl). These findings provide a theoretical basis for developing sustainable strategies for waste plastic combustion and pollution control.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Waste plastics
Co-combustion
Chlorine migration
Catalytic synergy
Reaction mechanism
Reactive force field
Funding
The work was supported by the Science and Technology Program of XPCC (No.2023AB032, No. 2025DA005, No.2025DA047), and the Scientific and Technological Innovation Leading Talent of Tianchi (No. CZ002703).
Conflict of interest
Zehua Huang and Zhenglei Wu are employees of Xinjiang Jintai Advanced Materials Technology Co., Ltd. The authors declare no other competing interests beyond the relationships stated above.
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