Scientists have found a way to turn PET-type plastic into diamonds.

Making nanodiamonds from plastic will allow new recycling methods and have implications for Neptune and Uranus, which rain diamonds, reports Vice.

On the ice giants, under extreme pressure and high temperatures deep below the surface of the planet, hydrocarbons turn into diamonds, which remain there forever. Since the 1970s, scientists have believed that diamonds can indeed form diamond rain.

In 2017, researchers from Germany and California produced nanodiamonds, recreating the conditions in which diamonds form on Neptune and Uranus. For this, they used polystyrene (aka Styrofoam). A study published on Friday in Science Advances suggests that years later, scientists returned to experiments, this time using polyethylene terephthalate (PET). This research has implications not only for our understanding of space, but also paves the way for creating nanodiamonds from plastic waste.

Source: https://mezha.media

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