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Recycled plastic bottles could one day be used to power solar batteries, electric vehicles, smart phones and much else, according to researches at Penn State in the US.
How do you turn plastic into a battery for a solar storage system? By turning the material into crystals…sort of.
The study, the results of which were published in Diamond and Related Materials, converted waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET, for short). This formed into “large, well-ordered crystallites” or “microscopic regions of well-aligned carbon layers”, Penn State said.
These properties, Penn State said, “exceeded those of commercial natural graphite samples, indicating that PET-derived material had a more ordered crystal structure”.
What does this mean? It means that plastic bottles, when broken down can be used in batteries just as naturally graphite is used to power energy storage systems, smartphones, laptops, and even EVs.
Graphite is so important to the world of electronics and energy systems that US, the UK, and the EU all consider it a critical mineral, alongside lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese. It’s a crucial part of lithium-ion batteries because it’s the anode material that stores and releases electrical charges.
As well as being a critical part of clean energy and electronics, PET is also one of the most common plastics on Earth, and much of it, despite plastic bottles being put into recycling bins, ends up on landfill.
That begs the question: how did the researchers turn plastic bottles, which would otherwise have been thrown away, into something that can store clean energy?
They mixed together shredded PET plastic with small amounts of graphene oxide and heated it through “a carefully controlled thermal process” and then “reorganised the carbon atoms within the plastic into highly ordered graphitic structures”.
They claim to have done so by using “graphene-based additives” to promote what Penn State calls “graphitisation without introducing metallic contaminants”. This essentially means the process uses fewer chemicals and creates less waste.
This means it could be possible to “simplify future manufacturing and reduce the environmental footprint associated with producing battery materials”. This means that not only could more batteries in a shorter space of time but that doing so would be less damaging to the environment.
Shakshi Sekar, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in Penn State’s John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, said that the work shows that PET plastic can be a “valuable resource for producing graphite”, which is “essential for modern battery technology”.
“Instead of viewing plastic as a disposal problem, we can see it as a resource that helps support clean energy technologies,” Sekar remarked.
Written By
Max joined The Eco Experts as content manager in February 2024 and became deputy editor in 2025. He has written about sustainability issues across numerous industries, including maritime, supply chain, finance, mining, and retail. He has also written extensively for consumer titles like City AM, The Morning Star, and The Daily Express.
He has represented The Eco Experts on national television several times, including the BBC’s Sunday Morning Live and ITV Tonight .
In 2020, he covered in detail the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) legislation on sulphur emissions and its effects on the global container shipping market as online editor of Port Technology International.
He also explored the initiatives major container ports and terminals have launched in order to ship vital goods across the world without polluting the environment.
Since then, he has reported heavily on the impact made by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices on the supply chain of minerals, with a particular focus on rare earth mining in Africa.
As part of this, in 2022 Max visited mines and ports in Angola to hone in on the challenges being faced by one of the world’s biggest producers of rare earth minerals.
His most recent sustainability-related work came much closer to home, as he investigated the eco-challenges faced by independent retailers in the UK, specifically looking at how they can cut emissions and continue to thrive.
Max lives in South London and is an avid reader of books on modern history. He has also recently learned to play the game Mahjong and takes every opportunity to do so. He is also yet to find a sport he doesn’t enjoy watching.
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