A Cambridge University team made the device with simple materials using a paint sprayer—offering a possible dual fix for plastic pollution and dirty hydrogen production
But seriously, this doesn’t make any sense to my ( chemisty course flunking ) head:
They have made a device that uses sunlight to break down plastic waste and turn it into hydrogen. And it’s not just a lab curiosity. The team made it using simple methods and materials, and have tested it outside in the sunlight.
Where does the carbon go? What about the oxygen? Does the sun burn them? I don’t get it
It’s also the worst possible course of study to ever require for anyone outside organic chem majors.
I loved biology and statistics, and was pretty neutral towards calculus, but for some reason, chemistry is incomprehensible to me (Physics too, but that’s because neither the teacher nor I knew how to use my Casio graphing calculator, so I tried to do all the math on paper and ended up wasting the whole class doing arithmetic instead of listening-I’ve thought about taking a basic physics course at a community college, but I don’t think even that would help with chemistry).
My sister’s a science teacher and was taking masters level organic chemistry classes while I was taking high school chemistry. At one point she showed me some of her coursework and I literally decided in that moment that I didn’t want to study biology badly enough to go through organic chemistry.
That sounds like she’s a really bad teacher, lol, but my strengths are definitely in different areas, so it’s also a fair insight.
Besides H2 evolution, the oxidation products from the photocatalytic reforming process were also analyzed using ion chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The major oxidation products detected after 22 h were formate and acetate (from pretreated cellulose), as well as glycolaldehyde (GAld) dimer and glycolate (from pretreated PET),
“…in a petri dish”
But seriously, this doesn’t make any sense to my ( chemisty course flunking ) head:
Where does the carbon go? What about the oxygen? Does the sun burn them? I don’t get it
I suspect that the leftovers can be processed more easily. It would be nice of the article to talk about what residuals are left.
Organic chem is fun. It’s also the worst possible course of study to ever require for anyone outside organic chem majors.
Short answer? This substrate produces H2, formate and acetate. The carbon would mostly be dissolving via formic acid into formate.
Long answer?
Organic Chemistry is literally magic, don’t think about it too hard unless you’ve dedicated your life to it.
I loved biology and statistics, and was pretty neutral towards calculus, but for some reason, chemistry is incomprehensible to me (Physics too, but that’s because neither the teacher nor I knew how to use my Casio graphing calculator, so I tried to do all the math on paper and ended up wasting the whole class doing arithmetic instead of listening-I’ve thought about taking a basic physics course at a community college, but I don’t think even that would help with chemistry).
My sister’s a science teacher and was taking masters level organic chemistry classes while I was taking high school chemistry. At one point she showed me some of her coursework and I literally decided in that moment that I didn’t want to study biology badly enough to go through organic chemistry.
That sounds like she’s a really bad teacher, lol, but my strengths are definitely in different areas, so it’s also a fair insight.
what the…?!?
Statements dreamt up by the utterly deranged /s
They are playing us for fools
burn any hydrocarbon, you get hydrogen/water and C02.
That’s bad
from the article (https://www.nature.com/articles/s44286-026-00406-y) linked in the article:
seems very resources intensive, and with specific reagents/chemicals.
incomplete combustion, likely some nasty nitrates in there.
We’ll just dump them in the ocean. Nothing bad has ever happened from just dumping things in the ocean.