What plants can teach us about oil spill clean-up and microfluidics

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For years, scientists have been inspired by nature to innovate solutions to tricky problems, even oil spills — manmade disasters with devastating environmental and economic consequences. A new USC study takes a cue from leaf structure to fabricate material that can separate oil and water, which could lead to safer and more efficient oil spill clean-up methods.

For years, scientists have been inspired by nature to innovate solutions to tricky problems, even oil spills — manmade disasters with devastating environmental and economic consequences. A new USC study takes a cue from leaf structure to fabricate material that can separate oil and water, which could lead to safer and more efficient oil spill clean-up methods.

In addition, the material is capable of “microdroplet manipulation,” or the transfer of miniature volumes of liquid. Droplet-based microfluidics is a tool used in various applications like cell cultures, chemical synthesis and DNA sequencing.

Using 3-D printing, Associate Professor Yong Chen and his research team at the Daniel J. Epstein School of Industrial and Systems Engineering have successfully mimicked a biological phenomenon in plant leaves called “Salvinia effect.” Their study focuses on a floating fern native to South America called Salvinia molesta. The unique leaves are super-hydrophobic, meaning “water-fearing” and retain a surrounding air pocket when submerged in water due to the presence of water-resistant hairs.

“I think the reason the plant’s surface is super-hydrophobic is because it lives on the water and requires air to survive,” Yang Yang, a postdoctoral researcher on Chen’s team, said. “If it weren’t for the long-term evolution of this plant, the plant could be submerged in water and would die.”

Read more at University of Southern California

Photo: 3D printed prototype of super-hydrophobic “egg-beater” structure. CREDIT: Yang Yang