新华网9月26日电 据科技博客Gizmodo刊文，你周围的人是否有收集塑料袋以备下次使用的习惯？而这样的习惯是否已经造成了数以百计的塑料袋堆积在那里？现在，这些都不是问题了，澳大利亚阿德莱德大学的一个研究小组把这些塑料袋应用到了未来的技术中。
该研究小组把塑料袋转变成碳纳米管，具体而言，通过把塑料袋气化，然后让分离出的碳分子在氧化铝膜上形成分层，这样就可以在氧化铝膜上制造出碳纳米管。碳纳米管是人类已知的最坚固硬度最高的材料之一，可用于多种领域。这一研究发现也成功解决了塑料垃圾袋造成的环境问题。
以前也曾有科学家尝试用剩余塑料袋制造纳米管，与之相比，澳大利亚研究小组的新方法成本低、效率高。但这些方法的共同优点是，把无用的垃圾转变为有用的东西，而不仅仅是简单的腾出空间而已。
Have you ever had a roommate who saves plastic grocery bags just in case they ever have the need to reuse the dang things? Like, hundreds of plastic grocery bags? Well, thanks to some Australian engineers, those extra bags can become technology of the future.
A team from the University of Adelaide recently developed a method for turning plastic bags into carbon nanotubes. Specifically, they grew the nanotubes on alumina membranes by vaporizing the plastic bags in a furnace and then layering the isolated carbon molecules onto the membranes. Carbon nanotubes are among the strongest and stiffest materials known to man and can be used for everything from electronics to wind turbines. And this new process creates the nanotubes while also doing away with problematic waste.
Compared with previous cases that scientist built carbon nanotubes from the remnants of plastic bags, the new Australian method is both cheaper and more efficient. And both methods make those nasty pieces of trash into something that we can actually use, instead of just taking up space space in your kitchen cabinet.
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