Scientists turn plastic bottles into nanomaterials to use them usable batteries

Engineers and professors from the University of California turn plastic bottles into nanomaterials to be used as usable batteries and as battery storage systems. In recent times, battery storage becomes a crucial necessity, be it in large-scale energy projects or for electric vehicles. This helps to make battery storage as straining and more sustainable alternatives. The scientists are also making an effort to use natural sources such as mushrooms and moss.

"We are using waste from landfill, and up-cycling plastic bottles could lower the total cost of batteries while making the battery production sustainable on top of eliminating plastic pollution worldwide.  Thirty percent of the global car fleet is expected to be electric by 2040. The high cost of raw battery materials is a challenge," said Mihri Ozkan, an electrical engineering professor at UCR's Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering.

The college has also published an open-access article published in the journal Energy storage that clearly describes the use of sustainable and more accurate processes for up-cycling the polyethylene terephthalate plastic waste, or PET, which is present in the plastic bottles. The researchers have also stated that this process can also be used to make carbon nanotube, which reduces pollution.