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Some day soon, we may all drive cars that are literally lemons. Or, more likely, bananas.
Brazilian scientists have found a way to use fruit fibres to produce durable, light-weight plastics that can be used in car parts. They expect the new plastics could be used in dashboards, bumpers and side panels within two years.
"The properties of these plastics are incredible," lead researcher Aclicides Leao said, according to CNN. "They are light, but very strong - 30 per cent lighter and three to four times stronger" than regular plastic.
Dr. Leao of Sao Paulo State University said the light-weight plastics would reduce the weight of vehicles, improving their fuel efficiency. The plastics, which can be produced using fibres from bananas, pineapple leaves, cattails and coconut shells, are also more resistant to heat, water and spilled gasoline than conventional plastics, CNN says.
The idea of using fruit fibres in cars might conjure memories of the reinforced plastics that were used to build Soviet-era German Trabants. (The bodies of those vehicles were made of compressed cardboard coated with plastic resin. And for numerous production and engineering reasons, the Trabant earned a reputation for being one of the worst cars ever made.)
Fruit cars, however, might be nearly indestructible. The Brazilian scientists say their new plastics are almost as strong as Kevlar, which is used in bulletproof vests. So even if future vehicles are made of fruit, hopefully, they'll be a sweet ride.