For the first time ever, regular plastic was turned into a synthetic diamond after being shot with a laser beam. Synthetic diamonds are valuable because of their hardness, are used to make high-quality cutting and polishing tools, thermal conductivity, and electrical insulation. This breakthrough will lead to a higher demand of plastic that ends up in the ocean.
Diamonds are simply a "solid form of carbon, arranged in a particular crystalline structure" with hydrogen and oxygen. In tests, a regular sheet of plastic (polyethylene terephthalate or PET) was heated to 6,000 degrees Celsius, and it was compressed "under a weight equal to a million of times Earth's atmospheric pressure for a few billionths of a second." This changed the molecular structure of the plastic instantly and change it into a nano-diamond.
This is a huge breakthrough for environmental science, and has changed the way plastic pollution can be clean up and reused in a positive, productive way.
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ordinary-plastic-turned-into-diamonds-via-laser-beam-in-the-blink-of-an-eye/
Sarah Hein
No comments:
Post a Comment