VOA慢速英语2014 烟头转变成电池

 

Turning Cigarette Butts² to Batteries 烟头转变成电池

If you see a person carelessly throw a cigarette to the ground, what are you likely to think?

That depends.

If you hate people throwing things on the ground, you might think, “That person should not litter.” If you are a smoker³, you might think, “I would sure like a cigarette right now.”

Most likely, though, you are not thinking, “You know, that unused cigarette butt¹ could be used to make something, something amazing!” 

That is, unless you are a creative scientist. If you are, you may see potential -- a possibility -- where others simply see trash.  That is just what has happened in South Korea. 

The spirit of invention can hit at the strangest times and in the most unusual places. In South Korea, it happened near a trash can. 

Kim Gil-Pyo is with the Seoul National University. Mr. Kim says he saw people throwing away cigarette butts. And that got him thinking. He began wondering if something useful could be made from them.

The result? Mr. Kim and other researchers found a way to turn, or convert, cigarette butts into the materials required for high-performance batteries.

We often say, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” And in this example, that is unquestionably true.             

The Parts of a Cigarette

Kim Gil-Pyo says he and his fellow researchers looked closely at used cigarette filters. The filter is the part of the cigarette that smokers⁴ put into their mouths. Filters are made of a material called “cellulose acetate.”

Mr. Kim explains that cellulose acetate can be made into another material: carbon. He says the pieces of cellulose acetate, known as fibers⁵, are changed through a one-step burning process. After this, he says, they are converted, or turned into, an energy storage material.

But why use carbon? Carbon has many qualities that seem to make it the perfect material. Carbon has a high surface area. It conducts electricity well. In other words, carbon can easily carry an electrical current. It also stays stable, unlikely to change, for a long time. And carbon does not cost a lot. All these qualities make it the most popular material for making super-capacitors. 

Super-capacitors are good at storing energy. They have high-power mass, or density⁶. They require only a short time for re-charging. And they have a long lifecycle. Super-capacitors are used in products such as laptop computers and cell phones. They are also used in industrial energy converters, like wind turbine machines. 

Combining carbon and super-capacitors seems like a perfect marriage.

Kim Gil-Pyo tells the Reuters News Agency that cigarette butts could affect the economy is a huge way. They could prove to be a low-cost source of carbon material. They are so cheap that smokers throw them to the ground. And you don’t get much cheaper than that. 

Seoul National University professor Yi Jong-heop led this research. The findings were published last month in the journal Nanotechnology.

1 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。

2 butts   

笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。
• The house butts to a cemetery. 这所房子和墓地相连。

3 smoker   

n.吸烟者，吸烟车厢，吸烟室

参考例句：

• His wife dislikes him to be a smoker.他妻子不喜欢他当烟民。
• He is a moderate smoker.他是一个有节制的烟民。

4 smokers   

吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily. 许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
• Chain smokers don't care about the dangers of smoking. 烟鬼似乎不在乎吸烟带来的种种危害。

5 fibers   

光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质

参考例句：

• Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
• Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。

6 density   

n.密集，密度，浓度

参考例句：

• The population density of that country is 685 per square mile.那个国家的人口密度为每平方英里685人。
• The region has a very high population density.该地区的人口密度很高。