Novomer takes a petrochemical material, adds carbon dioxide and an innovative catalyst developed by Cornell University professor Geoffrey Coates to grow a polymer.

Still, the findings are worrisome enough that it's worth seeking out alternatives, said lead researcher Heather Stapleton, an environmental chemist at Duke University in Durham, n.c..

"It's a kind of very light carbon nanotube material, " said Lei Zhai, the associate professor of chemistry at the University of Central Florida who led the material's development.