A team of scientists, led by NTU Singapore and Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, has created a reusable, biodegradable sponge that can readily soak up oil and other organic solvents from contaminated water sources.
A team of scientists, led by NTU Singapore and Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, has created a reusable, biodegradable sponge that can readily soak up oil and other organic solvents from contaminated water sources.
Made of sunflower pollen, the sponge is hydrophobic – it repels water – thanks to a coat of natural fatty acid on the sponge. In lab experiments, the scientists showed the sponge’s ability to absorb oil contaminants of various densities, such as gasoline and motor oil, at a rate comparable to that of commercial oil absorbents.
Oil spills are difficult to clean up, and result in severe long-lasting damage to the marine ecosystem. Conventional clean-up methods, including using chemical dispersants to break oil down into very small droplets, or absorbing it with expensive, unrecyclable materials, may worsen the damage.
Read more at Nanyang Technological University
Image: A research team from NTU Singapore and Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea has engineered a sunflower pollen sponge that can soak up oil in contaminated water sources. (L-R) NTU PhD student Mohammed Shahrudin Ibrahim, NTU Masters student Deng Jingyu, NTU research fellow Dr Zhao Ze, and NTU Prof Cho Nam-Joon. (Credit: NTU Singapore)
