Research finds plastic packaging can be used to create electricity wires

Research by Swansea University has found how plastics used in food packaging can be used to create new materials such as wire for electricity, while also reducing plastic waste.

The research, published in The Journal for Carbon Research, focused on black plastics, and removing the carbon to construct nanotube molecules from the bottom up using the carbon atoms.

The nanotubes were then used to transmit electricity to a lightbulb in a small demonstrator model.

The research team now plans to make high purity carbon electrical cables using waste plastic materials and to improve to nanotube materials’ electrical performance and increase the output, so they are ready for large-scale deployment in the next three years.

Dr Alvin Orbaek White, a Fellow at the Energy Safety Research Institute at Swansea University, said: “The research is significant as carbon nanotubes can be used to solve the problem of electricity cables overheating and failing, which is responsible for about eight per cent of electricity that is lost in transmission.”

“This may not seem like much, but it is low because electricity cables are short, which means that power stations have to be close to the location where electricity is used, otherwise the energy is lost in transmission.”

“Many long-range cables, which are made of metals, can’t operate at full capacity because they would overheat and melt. This presents a real problem for a renewable energy future using wind or solar, because the best sites are far from where people live.”