Flash Graphene from Plastic Waste
Open accessAbstract
In this work, an approach to upcycling plastic waste (PW) products is presented. The method relies on flash Joule heating (FJH) to convert PW into flash graphene (FG). In addition to FG, the process results in the formation of carbon oligomers, hydrogen, and light hydrocarbons. In order to make high-quality graphene, a sequential alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) flash is used. The FJH process requires no catalyst and works for PW mixtures, which makes the process suitable for handling landfill PW. The energy required to convert PW to FG is ∼23 kJ/g or ∼$125 in electricity per ton of PW, potentially making this process economically attractive for scale-up. The FG was characterized by Raman spectroscopy and had an I2D/IG peak ratio up to 6 with a low-intensity D band. Moreover, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis show that the FG is turbostratic with an interlayer spacing of 3.45 Å. The large interlayer spacing will facilitate its dispersion in liquids and composites. Analysis of FG dispersions in 1% Pluronic aqueous solution shows that concentrations up to 1.2 mg/mL can be achieved. The carbon oligomers that distilled from the process were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and have chemical structures similar to the starting PW. Initial analysis of gas-phase products shows the formation of considerable amounts of hydrogen along with other light hydrocarbons. As graphene is naturally occurring and shows a low toxicity profile, this could be an environmentally beneficial method to upcycle PW.
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Advincula et al. validated the versatility of the flash Joule heating technique; optimizing the process yielded turbostratic graphene with larger interlayer spacing than traditionally AB-stacked graphene, preserving the ideal physicochemical properties of monolayer graphene.
“Research by Advincula et al. (Fig. 4c) also validated the versatility of the FJH technique [52,55] .By optimizing the FJH process, researchers obtained turbostratic graphene with larger interlayer spacing than traditionally AB-stacked graphene.This enhanced spacing effectively preserves the ideal physicochemical properties of monolayer graphene.”
From Functional carbon materials from waste plastics: synthesis and applications (2025) · cites this paper as [55]
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References 50 · Cited by 301
- Authors
- Algozeeb, W. A., Savas, P. E., Luong, D. X., Chen, W., Kittrell, C., Bhat, M., Shahsavari, R., & Tour, J. M.
- Affiliations
- Rice University (US)
- C-Crete Technologies , , ,
- Corresponding author
- Tour, James M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- ACS Nano
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2020-10-29
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 15595-15604
- ISSN
- 1936-0851 (ISSN-L)
- 1936-086X
- OpenAlex
- W3095578827
- Cited by
- 301
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 56 · 2025: 77 · 2024: 47 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 11.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.osti.gov
- Licence
- Locations
- ACS Nano (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Saudi Aramco
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-19-0296)
- U.S. Department of Energy (DE-F0031794)
- Division of Materials Research (DMR 1709051)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Graphene research and applications
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Fiber-reinforced polymer composites
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Processes
- Keywords
- plastic waste upcycling, flash Joule heating, hydrogen production, light hydrocarbons, turbostratic graphene, interlayer spacing
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