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Catalytic bromine recycling from waste

Nature Sustainability (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

Bromine (Br), mostly extracted from nature, plays an essential role in the form of organobromides in various goods, including electronics, vehicles and furniture. At the same time, Br is continuously released into the environment in the form of persistent brominated pollutants upon the retirement of those goods, causing severe environmental consequences and loss of resources. Here we propose a catalytic strategy that enables the selective and mild-condition conversion of all organobromides present in wastes into renewed bromides for Br recycling. It employs Ullmann-type reactions enabled by inexpensive Cu(I), simple ligands and hydroxides in DMSO–H2O solvent. This strategy achieved >95% bromide yields at a temperature ≤120 °C for complex real-world Br-laden wastes. It can produce bromide-rich solution amenable to Br2 production, as demonstrated by the inorganicization–evaporation–oxidation process, and recoverable debrominated solids with preserved chemical states. Mechanistic studies revealed a full debromination framework encompassing diverse activated pathways. This work provides a viable approach for Br recycling and potentially facilitates a circular and sustainable anthropogenic Br flow.

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Fig. 1: Current bromine status and possible anthropogenic bromine cycling.
Fig. 2: Cu(I)-catalysed conversion of organobromides.
Fig. 3: Diverse debromination behaviours for different bromine states.
Fig. 4: Mechanistic study.
Fig. 5: Bromine cycling.
Fig. 6: Process evaluation.

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All data are available in the main text or the Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 52200166), received by Q.S. We acknowledge Shanghai Xinjinqiao Environmental Protection and Jiangxi Green Recycling for providing real-world wastes and Instrumental Analysis Center of SJTU for their technical support. We thank X. Xue at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Y. Li at Harvard University for some guidance in quantum chemical calculations.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Qingming Song, Bofan Cui.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Green Papermaking and Resource Recycling, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Qingming Song, Bofan Cui, Xuehong Yuan, Ya Liu & Zhenming Xu

  2. China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Jia Li

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  1. Qingming Song
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Q.S., Z.X. Data curation: Q.S., B.C. Methodology: Q.S., B.C. Investigation: Q.S., B.C. Formal analysis: Q.S., B.C., X.Y. Funding acquisition: Q.S. Project administration: Q.S. Visualization: Q.S. Supervision: Z.X. Writing – original draft: Q.S., B.C. Writing – review & editing: Q.S., B.C., X.Y., Y.L., J.L., Z.X.

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Correspondence to Zhenming Xu.

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Nature Sustainability thanks Mohammednoor Altarawneh, Jinxing Chen and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 The self-sourced catalysis for WPCBs resin and organobromides conversion under different conditions.

a, The self-sourced catalytic debromination of WPCBs resin where Cu(I) can be supplied by oxidation of the copper component and ligand can be supplied via leaching or decomposition of the epoxy resin component. b, The conversion of several organobromides under different conditions. In the absence of PEG-400 and within 2 h, many organobromides presented insufficient and low conversion. The addition of PEG-400 and the extension of reaction time led to >95% Br- yields for all tested organobromides.

Extended Data Fig. 2 The behavior and possible pathways for TBBPA depolymerization from WPCBs resin and detected intermediates for TBBPA conversion with CuI-L2.

a, TBBPA depolymerization behavior in the absence of CuI and ligands. b, The computational analysis of possible TBBPA depolymerization pathways using a truncated model of brominated epoxy resin. c, The detection of hydroxylated and hydrogen-substituted intermediates and products during TBBPA conversion with CuI-L2 using HPLC–TOF-MS. The curves were vertically offset for clarity.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 3 The computation and experiment barriers for 2-BP conversion with CuI-L2.

a, The initiation barriers for 2-BP conversion with possible Cu(I)-L2 complexes. b, The experimental barriers for 2-BP conversion with CuI-L2. Reaction condition: about 0.2 M 2-BP, 12.5 mM CuI, 25 mM L2, 2.5 mL DMSO, 2.5 mL H2O, 2 M KOH. c, Computational analysis of possible activation pathways for 2-BP conversion with Cu(I)-L2 complexes. Concentration correction (2 M OH−, 12.5 mM Cu(I) complexes, 0.1 M 2-BP) was adopted for the computed free energies. d, Phenyl radical generation through DET with Cu(I)[(L2)2−]2.

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 4 FTIR analysis of solids before and after catalysis, energy consumption for Br2 production and method extension.

a, The FTIR spectrum of solids before and after catalysis. b, Estimated energy consumption for Br2 production via the proposed bromine recovery process and from nature. c, BFRs conversion using H2O as solvent. d, The ability in treating chlorinated and fluorinated aliphatics.

Source data

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information (download PDF )

Supplementary Materials, Methods, Notes 1–13, Figs. 1–57, Tables 1–8 and References.

Reporting Summary (download PDF )

Supplementary Data 1 (download PDF )

Computational structures of some basic molecules.

Supplementary Data 2 (download PDF )

Computational structures for L2-related reactions.

Supplementary Data 3 (download PDF )

Computational structures for L7-related reactions.

Supplementary Data 4 (download PDF )

Computational structures for TBBPA depolymerization, HBB conversion and HBCD conversion.

Supplementary Data 5 (download PDF )

Additional computational structures.

Source data

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Song, Q., Cui, B., Yuan, X. et al. Catalytic bromine recycling from waste. Nat Sustain (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-026-01777-z

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