
Flash graphene made from plastic by a Rice University lab begins as post-consumer plastic received from a recycler. It is then mixed with carbon black and processed into turbostratic graphene via timed pulses of AC and DC electricity. Courtesy of the Tour Group
Rice University lab detours potential environmental hazard into useful material
Plastic waste comes back in black as pristine graphene, thanks to ACDC.
That’s what Rice University scientists call the process they employed to make efficient use of waste plastic that would otherwise add to the planet’s environmental woes. In this instance, the lab of Rice chemist James Tour modified its method to make flash graphene to enhance it for recycling plastic into graphene.
The lab’s study appears in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano.
Simply, instead of raising the temperature of a carbon source with direct current, as in the original process, the lab first exposes plastic waste to around eight seconds of high-intensity alternating current, followed by the DC jolt.
The products are high-quality turbostratic graphene, a valuable and soluble substance that can be used to enhance electronics, composites, concrete and other materials, and carbon oligomers, molecules that can be vented away from the graphene for use in other applications.
“We also produce considerable amount of hydrogen, which is a clean fuel, in our flashing process,” said Rice graduate student and lead author Wala Algozeeb.
Tour estimated that at industrial scale, the ACDC process could produce graphene for about $125 in electricity costs per ton of plastic waste.
“We showed in the original paper that plastic could be converted, but the quality of the graphene wasn’t as good as we wanted it to be,” Tour said. “Now, by using a different sequence of electrical pulses, we can see a big difference.”
He noted most of the world’s plastic recycling technologies are ineffective, and that only about 9% of produced plastic is recycled. Most notorious, Tour said, is an island of plastic waste the size of Texas that has formed in the Pacific Ocean.
“We have to deal with this,” he said. “And there’s another problem: Microbes in the ocean that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen are being hindered by plastic breakdown products and they’re reversing the process, taking oxygen and converting it to carbon dioxide. That’s going to be really bad for humans.”
Tour noted flash joule conversion eliminates much of the expense associated with recycling plastic, including sorting and cleaning that require energy and water. “Rather than recycling plastic into pellets that sell for $2,000 a ton, you could be upcycling to graphene, which has a much higher value,” he said. “There’s an economic as well as an environmental incentive.”
Despite the overwhelming amount of plastic feedstock, having too much graphene won’t be a problem, Tour said. “Whatever you do with carbon, once you’ve taken it up out of the ground from oil or gas or coal, it ends up in the carbon dioxide cycle,” he said. “The nice thing about graphene is its biological degradation under many conditions is very slow, so in most cases it doesn’t reenter the carbon cycle for hundreds of years.”
He noted the researchers are working to refine the flash graphene process for other materials, especially for food waste. “We’re working toward generating a good pulse sequence to convert food waste into very high-quality graphene with as little emission as possible,” he said. “We’re employing machine learning programs to help us know where to go.”
The new study follows another recent paper that characterizes flash graphene produced from carbon black via direct current joule heating. That paper, also in ACS Nano, combined microscopy and simulations to show two distinct morphologies: turbostratic graphene and wrinkled graphene sheets. The study described how and why the rearranged carbon atoms would take one form or the other, and that the ratio can be controlled by adjusting the duration of the flash.
The Latest Updates from Bing News & Google News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Flash graphene
- Study: Superconductivity switches on and off in 'magic-angle' graphene
With some careful twisting and stacking, MIT physicists have revealed a new and exotic property in "magic-angle" graphene: superconductivity that can be turned on and off with an electric pulse ...
- Researchers Turn Asphaltene into Graphene for Composites
Muhammad Rahman, an assistant research professor of materials science and nanoengineering, is employing Rice’s unique flash Joule heating process to convert asphaltenes instantly into turbostratic ...
- How to format a USB flash drive on Windows 10
You can format a USB flash drive to delete its contents or resolve problems quickly, and here's how on Windows 10. On Windows 10, the ability to format a USB flash ...
- Flashing Plastic Ash Generates Graphene
The graphene could be used to strengthen concrete and toughen plastics used in medicine, energy and packaging applications. Courtesy of the Tour Group Like the flash graphene process the lab ...
- Graphene Global Market Report 2023: Graphene to be Instrumental in Advancing Spintronics
Dublin, Jan. 19, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Graphene - A Global Market Overview" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Graphene, an allotrope of carbon, comprises a ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Flash graphene
[google_news title=”” keyword=”flash graphene” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Turbostratic graphene
- Study: Superconductivity switches on and off in 'magic-angle' graphene
With some careful twisting and stacking, MIT physicists have revealed a new and exotic property in "magic-angle" graphene: superconductivity that can be turned on and off with an electric pulse ...
- Researchers Turn Asphaltene into Graphene for Composites
Muhammad Rahman, an assistant research professor of materials science and nanoengineering, is employing Rice’s unique flash Joule heating process to convert asphaltenes instantly into turbostratic ...
- Graphene Computers Work 1000 Times Faster, Use Far Less Power
The discovery of graphene in 2004 began a flurry of studies to isolate other two-dimensional materials. Graphene was found to be a wonder material, possessing a set of unique and remarkable ...
- Flashing Plastic Ash Generates Graphene
A strong jolt of energy flashes it into graphene. The technique by the lab of Rice chemist James Tour produces turbostratic graphene flakes that can be directly added to other substances like films of ...
- Graphene Global Market Report 2023: Graphene to be Instrumental in Advancing Spintronics
Dublin, Jan. 19, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Graphene - A Global Market Overview" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Graphene, an allotrope of carbon, comprises a ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Turbostratic graphene
[google_news title=”” keyword=”turbostratic graphene” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]