Journal
ACS NANO
Volume 14, Issue 11, Pages 15595-15604Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c06328
Keywords
plastic waste; microplastics; recycling; upcycling; graphene; composites
Categories
Funding
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research [FA955019-0296]
- Department of Energy [DE-F0031794]
- Saudi Aramco
- NSF-DMR [1709051]
- Division Of Materials Research
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1709051] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In this work, an approach to upcycling plastic waste (PW) products is presented. The method relies on flash Joule heating (FJH) to convert PW into flash graphene (FG). In addition to FG, the process results in the formation of carbon oligomers, hydrogen, and light hydrocarbons. In order to make high-quality graphene, a sequential alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) flash is used. The FJH process requires no catalyst and works for PW mixtures, which makes the process suitable for handling landfill PW. The energy required to convert PW to FG is similar to 23 kJ/g or similar to$125 in electricity per ton of PW, potentially making this process economically attractive for scale-up. The FG was characterized by Raman spectroscopy and had an I-2D/I-G peak ratio up to 6 with a low-intensity D band. Moreover, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis show that the FG is turbostratic with an interlayer spacing of 3.45 angstrom. The large interlayer spacing will facilitate its dispersion in liquids and composites. Analysis of FG dispersions in 1% Pluronic aqueous solution shows that concentrations up to 1.2 mg/mL can be achieved. The carbon oligomers that distilled from the process were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and have chemical structures similar to the starting PW. Initial analysis of gas-phase products shows the formation of considerable amounts of hydrogen along with other light hydrocarbons. As graphene is naturally occurring and shows a low toxicity profile, this could be an environmentally beneficial method to upcycle PW.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available