Вчені перетворили пластик pet на крихітні діаманти лазером

In a new experiment, scientists have managed to use a powerful X-ray laser to convert PET plastic into tiny diamonds, similar to those that might fall on ice giant planets like Neptune

Scientists have turned plastic into diamonds. Using high-powered lasers, the team zapped samples of PET, the common material used in plastic bottles, to produce intense heat and pressure to form tiny diamonds that may naturally rain down on planets like Uranus and Neptune.

Here on Earth, diamonds are prized for their rarity (even if that may be changing), but on other planets they may be seem as common as rocks. On ice giants like Uranus and Neptune, it’s thought that the extreme pressure would compress elements like hydrogen and carbon to form solid diamonds that then fall through the atmosphere like rain.
This phenomenon hasn’t been directly detected, but in 2017 a team of scientists reported that they had recreated the process in the lab. They did so by firing the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), at samples of hydrocarbon materials. This instantly heated them to temperatures of up to 6,000 °C (10,800 °F) and generated powerful shock waves of a few million atmospheres of pressure, forming tiny “nanodiamonds.”