UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., June 26 -- Pennsylvania State University issued the following news release:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - A plastic bottle tossed into a recycling bin could one day help power an electric vehicle, smartphone or renewable energy storage system, according to a team of Penn State researchers.
In a new study, researchers converted waste polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, into highly ordered synthetic graphite, a crystalline form of carbon. The formed graphite exhibited large, well-ordered crystallites - or microscopic regions of well-aligned carbon layers - indicating a highly organized crystal structure. These properties exceeded those of commercial natural graphite samples, indicating that the PET-derived material had a more...