Scientists make nanodiamonds out of plastic bottles

A team of German and French researchers have designed an intriguing experiment in order to find out more about the conditions in the ice giant planets, Neptune and Uranus. They fired extremely powerful laser flashes at a film of PET plastic – the same stuff used in plastic bottles – and found that the resulting shock wave produced tiny diamonds.
“We discovered that this extreme pressure produced tiny diamonds,” said Dominik Kraus, University of Rostock professor. 
This research further supports the theory that on ice giants such as Neptune and Uranus, it could literally rain diamonds. 
In addition to providing this exciting new knowledge about the ice giant planets, the research could also help establish a new way of producing nanodiamonds in industry, where they can be used, for example, in the production of quantum sensors. It could also help with the tailored production of nanometer-sized diamonds, which are currently used in the manufacture of abrasives and polishing agents,  sciencefocus.com notes.

Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished