Rice team turns pyrolyzed ash into graphene

Researchers at Jamed Tour’s lab at Rice University have developed a new process, able to convert worthless pyrolyzed plastic ash into graphene. The technique produces turbostratic graphene flakes that can be directly added to other substances like films of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) that better resist water in packaging and cement paste and concrete, dramatically increasing their compressive strength.

Similarly to the flash graphene process the Tour lab introduced before, pyrolyzed ash turns into turbostratic graphene. That has weaker attractive interactions between the flakes, making it easier to mix them into solutions.