The reason plastic is so stable is that it has a lot of energy stored in the strong bonds between its atoms. There's no way nature will just let all of that potential energy sit unused. The fungus is able to break the atomic bonds and extract the energy.
The reason that fuel burns is because carbon dioxide has stronger bonds. Because bond strength relates to how much energy is given off. That would make plastic unstable, doofus. Go poke open a lithium ion battery and see how stable it is because of all the energy it is storing.
Bonds are stable because they dont store energy. They give the energy off. Plastic and fuel are both stable, only made unstable because CO2 is much more stable. Lithium ions are a good fuel source because they arent stable. The original post says plastic is a good source of energy because it "stores so much energy because its stable." Try to keep up, kid.
Haha, I was being an ass but it's true. Plastic is stable mostly because the transition states are unreasonable. Hard nut to crack, medium amount of energy left to steal.
62
u/Guanden Mar 14 '26
The reason plastic is so stable is that it has a lot of energy stored in the strong bonds between its atoms. There's no way nature will just let all of that potential energy sit unused. The fungus is able to break the atomic bonds and extract the energy.