As the popular quotation goes, “do what you can with what you have.” The exploration of science and life is open to many pathways.
In this continued series of experiments, the overall goal is to transmute or catalyze plastic into water with light, and possibly the addition of sound. So, using what amounts to molecular or electronic cymatics.
It’s my opinion that, especially with growth in materials science, optics and novel chemistries, this will eventually be a success. Waste to water as a process already exists at a much larger scale, but it involves large machinery, combustion and not immediately useful byproduct (last time I checked). This device, in the early stages of progress, focuses more on precision and efficiency than power.
The ‘why’ of making a portable device is clear. Locally, in homes, parks and businesses for example, this would help effectively clean up the environment, and receptacles could serve the dual purpose of simultaneously supplying water.
This approach would be a landmark process, in addition to other efforts to clean up manually, recycle and reformulate materials. I want to make portable non-toxic photocatalysis a reality and thereby make a huge impact on the issue by truly solving it, and see this and other utopian ‘futuristic’ technologies come into fruition.
I want to be able to pick up a piece of plastic off the street, deposit it in an artful pleasant looking receptacle, while viewing its light display in the process, and then to fill my bottle on the other side with pristine filtered water.
The reality of research and testing of course is that it can take a while. It can take much longer than writing a blog or social media post, or publishing a research paper or three. In this case, the immersive physically engineered creation or application is necessary for desired results to take flight. This is a concept that should be upscaled to best benefit society and planet.
I haven’t seen as yet any other companies pushing for a solution quite like this to happen, so I feel a responsibility to this vision and narrative. What I have seen lately is companies putting plastics back into circulation, though recycling. My solution would take the plastic out of circulation and create H2O.
With experimentation, it’s one piece or component at a time. I have put together a desktop UV reactor made of aluminum and zinc electroplated steel that is vented for the flow of oxygen. Inside, the test subject is a Polyethylene cup. The most recent tests have adjusted the physical shape of the reactor, the UV light settings, and recently adding sound. This accompanies recent comparative data collected about specific light ranges that are conversions from electron volt ionization levels to nanometers.
The conversion from electron volts to nanometers is based on this inverse-proportional relationship:
1 Photon Energy (eV) = 1239.84193 wavelength (nm)
1 wavelength (nm) = 1239.84193 Photon Energy (eV)
As the energy increases, the wavelength decreases and vice versa. Small wavelength corresponds to high energy; large wavelength to low energy.
This relationship between eV and nm is also consistent with the harmonic series, which I have used to convert both light and sound to safe and pleasing ranges that are easier to produce.
The sound conversion is simply nanometers to hertz. And the nanometers are converted from electron volts. These are both well-known conversions, applied here in a novel context.
The hertz conversion uses the formula:
frequency (Hz) = speed of light (m/s) / wavelength (m)
Then, the same inverse proportional relationship exists between nanometers and hertz:
1 wavelength in nanometers = 2.99792458 x 10+17 hertz
1 hertz = 2.99792458 x 10+17 wavelength in nanometers
Further experimentation is underway using the resources available, learning about and appreciating nature’s light and physics along the way. Next steps include additional light wavelengths and sound frequencies.
- Photon Unit Calculator | KM Labs | https://www.kmlabs.com/en/wavelength-to-photon-energy-calculator
- Energy Converter | Michigan State University | https://www2.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty/reusch/virttxtjml/cnvcalc.htm