Researchers turn plastic into nanodiamonds using laser compression
Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and the University of Rostock published a study on producing high-purity nanodiamonds from plastic via laser shocks.
Laser method creates uniform particles
Researchers fired high-power lasers at plastics to heat and compress the material. This process transforms carbon into diamonds under extreme temperatures and pressures. The resulting particles have a narrow size distribution that conventional explosion methods cannot achieve.
Initial focus was planetary physics
The team originally aimed to simulate conditions inside planets like Neptune or Uranus. These environments feature temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius and pressures millions of times higher than Earth's atmosphere. The study appears in the journal Diamond and Related Materials.
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