Plastic bags recycled into nanotubes - tech - 11 December 2009 - New Scientist

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Plastic bags recycled into nanotubes - tech - 11 December 2009 - New Scientist

A technique has been developed to convert discarded plastic bags into nanotubes for use in batteries, generating a product more valuable than the original waste material. The bags are "cooked" at above 600C in the presence of cobalt acetate catalyst, causing the bonds to break down and carbon nanotubes to grow on thesurface of the catalyst. The cobalt acetate then becomes the anode of a lithium battery.