Lasers turn ordinary plastic into billions of recoverable nanodiamonds

Researchers at HZDR and the University of Rostock fired a high-power laser at PET film at the ELI facility near Prague and recovered intact nanodiamonds for the first time. The particles average 3 nm across with roughly 3,000 carbon atoms each; about 100 shots yielded a few hundred micrograms of material.

• Recovered nanodiamonds average 3 nm and about 3,000 carbon atoms
• Laser fired three times per minute at 100-micrometer PET film
• Diamonds fly at over 10 km/s and are caught in an ionic gel
• Each laser shot produces roughly 10 trillion nanodiamonds