/ News
Scientists Recycle Plastic Bags Into Carbon Nanotubes
One man’s waste plastic bags could be a high-tech’s nanomaterial, according to a new study published in the journal Carbon.
Researchers at the University of Adelaide have developed a process for turning plastic bags like you get at the grocery store into “carbon nanotube membranes.” This high-tech nanomaterial is a sophisticated and expensive material with a variety of potential applications, including filtration, sensing, energy storage and other biomedical innovations.
“Non-biodegradable plastic bags are a serious menace to natural ecosystems and present a problem in terms of disposal,” Professor Dusan Losic, ARC Future Fellow and Research Professor of Nanotechnology in the University’s School of Chemical Engineering, said in a press release. “Transforming these waste materials through ‘nanotechnological recycling’ provides a potential solution for minimizing environmental pollution at the same time as producing high-added value products.”
Carbon nanotubes are tiny cylinders of carbon atoms, one nanometer in diameter, which is about one-ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair. These nanotubes are hundreds of times stronger than steel but six times lighter. The material has unique mechanical, electrical, thermal and transport properties present, making it an exciting tool for researchers. Carbon nanotubes are already being used in industries such as electronics, sports equipment, long-lasting batteries, sensing devices and wind turbines.
Researchers grew the carbon nanotubes onto nanoporous alumina membranes using pieces of grocery bags, which were vaporized in a furnace to produce carbon layers that line the pores in the membranes.
“Initially we used ethanol to produce the carbon nanotubes,” says Professor Losic. “But my student (Tariq Altalhi) had the idea that any carbon source should be useable.”
The potential for carbon nanotubes hinges on the industry’s ability to produce large quantities more cheaply and uniformly. Current synthesis methods involve complex processes and equipment, and most companies in the market measure production output in only several grams per day.
“In our laboratory, we’ve developed a new and simplified method of fabrication with controllable dimensions and shapes, and using a waste product as the carbon source,” says Professor Losic.
The process used by the researchers is seen as a jumping point for a future where plastic waste can be used without generating poisonous compounds.
The University of Adelaide researchers are not the only scientists trying to make carbon nanotubes more affordable. Researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have found a way to provide low-cost, industrial scale manufacturing of the material. They have even devised a way to use carbon nanotubes to make a gas sensor that could be integrated into food packaging to gauge freshness.
Source: Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112957864/recycling-plastic-bags-into-carbon-nanotubes-nanomaterial-092513/
/ About us
Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
/ Follow us at:
/ Contact:
For additional information, partnerships and sponsorship, contact:
info@2045.com
Media requesting information and interviews, contact PR@2045.com
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
Google
Twitter
Facebook
Я.ру
ВКонтакте
Mail.ru