The technology could help make EVs more affordable as well as easier to charge.

A collaboration between researchers at the Yokohoma National University in Japan and the University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia has led to the development of a new electrode material that can be used in solid-state batteries. Thus the electrode doesn’t diminish after multiple charges and discharge cycles and can help in manufacturing durable batteries for electric vehicles.

As the world is turning over to electric modes of transportation in its bid to reduce carbon emissions, the battery has become a focal area of development.

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While high charging times make the shift to electric vehicles unattractive, as the crucial component, the battery must also be cheap enough to encourage EV adoption. Although progress has been made in developing lithium-ion batteries, solid-state batteries (SSBs) have also gained traction as an alternative.

Environmentalists, however, argue that the process may not be a good thing.

University of Colorado researchers have conceived of a method of making useful materials out of some of the plastics that are inundating landfills everywhere, according to a report by the Colorado Sun.

The end result is a series of polycyanurate networks which have been used for decades in electronic devices, automobiles, circuit boards, the space industry and more.

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The novel process uses ethanol to break down plastics to their smallest molecules. Those molecules are then used as starting blocks to make a new plastic product equally as useful and durable as the recycled one.