Carbon Nanotubes from Plastic Bags?

The first time we heard about Carbon Nanotubes several years ago we thought it was one of those ‘cool’ inventions of science that was even cooler to talk about! And all these years later we still feel the same!

So what are we dealing with here?

A rather complicated chemical process that converts waste plastic from discarded carrier bags into carbon nanotubes. This is called upcycling – converting a waste product into something more valuable.

Who is responsible?

Vilas Ganpat Pol at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.

How?

The method sounds fascinating and for all those curious types out there here it is.

The plastic matter is heated at 700 ⁰C for 2 hours in the presence of a special catalyst, Cobalt acetate, and then the mixture is cooled down gradually. When plastics are heated to above 600 ⁰C, the chemical bonds within the plastic breakdown and carbon nanotubes start to develop on the surface of the catalyst.

So what is it for?

The Cobalt containing nanotubes can then be used in lithium-ion and lithium-air batteries.

Any drawbacks?

Yes, there’s one. A lot of catalyst is needed to get good results (about a fifth of the weight of the plastic being converted) and it cannot easily be recovered afterwards. Cobalt is a fairly expensive catalyst and therefore poses a problem if this system were to be scaled up.

via: NewScientist