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- Environmental friendliness in transport: flying car and plastic diamonds
Environmental friendliness in transport: flying car and plastic diamonds
Russia has developed drones to replace firefighters, learned how to control nuclear waste recycling more safely, and made mining more environmentally friendly. A flying car was introduced in the USA, and in Germany they found a way to make nanodiamonds for medicine from ordinary plastic. Read more about the interesting science news of the week in the Izvestia collection.
Germany has learned how to make diamonds from plastic
Specialists from the University of Rostock and the Helmholtz Center have found a way to produce nanodiamonds from the most common plastic for packaging and bottles. They directed a laser pulse onto a thin plastic film. The shock wave compressed the material and raised its temperature to 3,700 degrees. Under such conditions, the carbon contained in the plastic began to form tiny diamond crystals, which inevitably collapsed upon impact with a hard surface.
In the new experiment, the team of scientists used a special gel that slows down the particles without harming their structure. After that, the nanodiamonds were purified and examined under a microscope. According to the developers, the particles created in this way are homogeneous, which makes it possible to use them in medicine, microelectronics and quantum research. In addition, in the future, scientists will be able to produce a material with predefined properties, but for industrial applications of the technology, it is necessary to find a way to create more particles in a shorter period of time. So far, it takes about 100 pulses to collect several hundred micrograms, and the laser system produces three pulses per minute. New experiments are scheduled for November 2026.
Tesla unveils flying car
On October 15, the company held a demonstration of the new Roadster. The first two modifications of this model drive on roads like classic cars, and the third, Rocket, can not only fly, but also spin in the air. Along with the company's classic electric motor, the new model features composite high-pressure cylinders and 10 nozzles that enable the car to rise above the road and rotate around a longitudinal axis. In addition, the car can be in the "upside down" position for a long time due to fans sucking air out from under the bottom.
Experts believe that the third Roadster would not have fallen even on a planet with a higher gravity than Earth. Now the new model from Tesla is a unique product. Engines for flights were developed at SpaceX. Other car companies will not be able to replicate such a technological solution in the coming years. The power of the electric motor for normal traffic on the roads is also impressive. It is approaching a thousand horsepower per ton, which allows the car to accelerate to 100 km in less than a second, however, experts say, do not forget about the harm of such acceleration for humans.
According to their estimates, the overload of the driver and passenger at the time of acceleration will be close to the conditions in spacecraft, and good physical fitness and experience will be needed for safe flight control.
Kamikaze drones will extinguish fires with a volumetric explosion
The device was developed by engineers of Kazan National Research Technical University named after A.N. Tupolev — KAI.
— The aircraft has a rocket-shaped body that reduces air resistance. The pointed and reinforced nose hood allows you to break through obstacles on the way to the fire source. Thanks to this, the drone can break double—glazed windows, plasterboard or plastic partitions," explained Ilfir Abdullin, one of the developers, Associate professor of the Department of Aircraft Structures and Design at KNRTU — KAI.
Special fire-fighting environments are installed inside the devices, equipped with fire-conducting cords that activate the system upon contact with flames. As a result, an explosion occurs, destroying the body of the drone. The detonation wave spreads out to the sides, knocking down the flame and expelling oxygen from the room, causing gorenje. The fire extinguishing powder is dispersed with the same spray.
According to the developers, the technology can be used where standard fire extinguishing equipment is not available, for example, on the upper floors of high—rise buildings, in deep corridors and elevator shafts. Another possible area is areas where the work of rescuers poses a threat to life and health, in particular, at the risk of collapse of structures or poisoning gorenje products. To extinguish large fires, the developers suggest using groups of drones.
However, the method has drawbacks: the explosion has an indiscriminate effect on the environment. Therefore, the use of such drones requires careful consideration of the possible consequences, experts explained to Izvestia.
Mining will become more environmentally friendly in Russia
Experts from the Institute of Mining of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have proposed an approach that allows for the most accurate assessment of the damage caused to the environment by mining. According to them, the assessment is currently carried out according to one of several possible parameters, which does not give an accurate picture and does not allow making a fully informed decision on the further use of these territories.
The new method is based on 10 criteria at once: the concentration of dangerous and especially dangerous elements in the soil, the proportion of radionuclides in water and radioactivity of rocks, anthropogenic stress on reservoirs, climate features, the presence of territories with a special protected status and with past environmental damage, the type of exposure, etc.
After collecting information on the ground and calculating these parameters, scientists were able to create an assessment matrix for 106 mining sites. According to the developers, the information obtained with the help of the new approach will help the relevant services to make decisions about the environmentally sound use of land.
The laser will allow safer control of nuclear waste recycling
Scientists from Sechenov University, together with colleagues from the Breakthrough Company and the High-tech Scientific Research Institute of Inorganic Materials named after Academician A.A. Bochvar (JSC VNIINM), have developed an optical approach for continuous monitoring of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing processes. It combines two spectroscopic methods and allows you to simultaneously monitor the state of the organic extractant, that is, a special substance that is used to extract uranium, and the composition of the aqueous phase without adding reagents and complex sample preparation.
In the processing of spent nuclear fuel, liquid extraction is widely used to separate its components: substances are distributed between the aqueous and organic phases. For the safety and stability of the process, it is important to understand how effective the separation is and whether the properties of the extractant do not change during the technological process. Traditional laboratory analysis requires sampling, takes time, and can create additional amounts of radioactive waste.
The researchers proposed to control the two phases using different optical methods. Raman spectroscopy shows what happens to the extractant, and laser-spark emission spectroscopy shows which elements remain in the aqueous phase.
The main idea of the work is to receive information about two flows of the same technological process in almost real time. So far, the technique has been tested on laboratory installations and simplified model solutions. Real technological environments are much more complex: they contain more components at the same time, and optical signals can be affected by acidity, radiolysis products, and other factors. The next stage is testing on multicomponent and irradiated media, as well as adapting equipment for remote work in real production conditions.
In the future, the development will make it possible to more quickly identify deviations in the technological process, reduce the number of operations with radioactive materials and reduce the formation of additional radioactive waste. At the same time, the new method should remain economically affordable, taking into account the cost of purchasing additional components and equipment maintenance, experts told Izvestia.
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