Oleo Sponge
Recently, researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory have developed a new technology, called the “Oleo Sponge”. It is a sponge like material made of polyurethane foam, but they used metal oxide infused nanostructures as a primer to cover the inside of it with oleophilic molecules, creating a material that can absorb 90 times it’s own weight in oil. It is also reusable, and when the oil is squeezed out, it can be reclaimed and still be used.
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This provides an amazing, cost effective and innovative solution to fix oil spills. Massive sheets of oleo sponges can be dragged through the water at an oil spill, and oil on the surface as well as below the surface will be sucked into the sponge, ready to be squeezed out and reused.
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