Get the latest tech news
Scientists use sunlight to break the toughest plastic to recycle
Instead of external compounds, the researchers used carbon black, already embedded in black polystyrene, as the heat-converting agent.
Now, scientists from Cornell and Princeton universities have developed a groundbreaking method that uses sunlight and carbon black itself to transform this challenging waste into reusable materials. “Simple, visible light irradiation holds the potential to transform the chemical recycling of plastics, using the additives already found in many commercial products,” say the paper’s authors, Sewon Oh, Hanning Jiang and Erin Stache. nside this reaction vial, spotlit by concentrated sunlight, a piece of black polystyrene from a foam tray breaks down into a recyclable material.
Or read this on r/tech
