{"id":1006,"date":"2012-03-29T08:50:51","date_gmt":"2012-03-29T06:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2012-03-29T08:50:51","modified_gmt":"2012-03-29T06:50:51","slug":"todays-plastic-bags-tomorrows-carbon-fiber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/2012\/03\/29\/todays-plastic-bags-tomorrows-carbon-fiber\/","title":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s Plastic Bags = Tomorrow&#8217;s Carbon Fiber"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/vhceucjecenjc.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-1009\" src=\"http:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/vhceucjecenjc.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"644\" height=\"494\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/vhceucjecenjc.jpg 920w, https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/vhceucjecenjc-300x230.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/vhceucjecenjc-500x383.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At the U.S. Department of Energy&#8217;s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, research is underway to recycle our unwanted plastic bags and convert them into carbon fiber. Not only that, but the properties of the fibers themselves could be fine-tuned, allowing different types of carbon fiber to be created for specific applications.<\/p>\n<p>The main scientist on the project, Amit Naskar, began with polyethylene-base fibers which could conceivably come from waste plastic sources, such as shopping bags and carpet backing scraps. Using a \u201ca multi-component melt extrusion-based fiber spinning method,\u201d the surface contours of these fibers can be customized, and their diameter can be manipulated with submicron precision.<\/p>\n<p>Bundles of these fibers are dipped into a proprietary acid chemical bath. A process known as sulfonation causes the plastic molecules to bond with one another, transforming each bundle of fibers into one joined black fiber.<\/p>\n<p>When exposed to very high temperatures, these fibers won\u2019t melt but instead, the heat will cause their chemical components to turn to a gaseous state. After the gass has been released, a fiber composed of most carbon is all that remains.<\/p>\n<p>Due to its tunable porosity, many uses are envisioned for the plastic-derived carbon fiber. Scientist hope the material will be of use to the production of applications such as filtration or energy harvesting, but more importantly it is hoped to be used in the American auto industry, to make tough yet lightweight, inexpensive car parts.<\/p>\n<p>The process holds great economic value as common material, such as polyethylene used in plastic bags, could be turned into something far more valuable.<\/p>\n<p><em><br \/>\n&#8220;Our results represent what we believe will one day provide industry with a flexible technique for producing technologically innovative fibers in myriad configurations such as fiber bundle or non-woven mat assemblies<\/em>&#8221; &#8211; Amit Naskar<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gizmag.com\/carbon-fiber-polyethylene\/21985\/\">http:\/\/www.gizmag.com\/carbon-fiber-polyethylene\/21985\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.democraticunderground.com\/112710593\">http:\/\/www.democraticunderground.com\/112710593<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks to research being conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy&#8217;s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, we may one day be able to recycle our waste plastic sources into carbon firer, and even  tailor the final product to specific applications. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1014,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions\/1014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}