Editing Polystyrene (section)

=== Upcycling ===
A March 2022 joint study by scientists Sewon Oh and Erin Stache at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York found a new processing method of upcycling polystyrene to [[benzoic acid]]. The process involved irradiation of polystyrene with iron chloride and acetone under white light and oxygen for 20 hours.<ref name="refup">{{Cite journal |last1=Oh |first1=Sewon |last2=Stache |first2=Erin E. |date=2022-04-06 |title=Chemical Upcycling of Commercial Polystyrene via Catalyst-Controlled Photooxidation |url=https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.2c01411 |journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society |language=en |volume=144 |issue=13 |pages=5745–5749 |doi=10.1021/jacs.2c01411| pmid=35319868 |bibcode=2022JAChS.144.5745O |s2cid=247629479 |issn=0002-7863|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The scientists also demonstrated a similar scalable commercial process of upcycling polystyrene into valuable small-molecules (like benzoic acid) taking just a few hours.<ref name="refup"/>