There is good news now for getting rid of the trash such as food waste and even plastics. Scientists have found a way to turn any carbon based trash, be it foods waste or plastic into valuable graphene, which is widely used in solar panels, electronics and buildings materials?
The new technology called as “Flash Graphene” uses just electric power to convert the trash into graphene. The study has been published in The Nature journal. Stating that the process of conversion of trash into grapheme using electric power was cheap and quick, Rice University Lab Chemist James Tour said that the technique can be used to convert a ton of food waste or plastic or any carbon based trash for a lesser cost than the cost involved in traditional method of producing graphene. Another important aspect of this technique is that the carbon is fixed and will not be released into the atmosphere.
In the “Flash Graphene” technique, the material is produced by heating the carbon based material to about 4725 degree Celsius in controlled reactors.
Stating that the present price of grapheme could come around 67,000 dollars to 200,000 dollars a ton, Tour said that the grapheme got by the new technique would come in much less price. He also said that the new technique was a revolution in the field of grapheme production and also in waste management.
