Microplastics can be recycled to make electrodes for lithium batteries

The polyethylene microplastic pollution commonly found in wastewater can be extracted to create electrodes for lithium-ion batteries

Technology



30 January 2023

By Carissa Wong

Fragments of plastic that pollute water sources across the world and are thought to be harmful to our health could be recycled to make electrodes for lithium-ion batteries.

Jinsub Choi at Inha University in South Korea and his colleagues have found a way to extract microplastics made of polyethylene – the most common type of plastic – from contaminated water and turn them into electrodes for lithium-ion batteries. This is the type of battery …