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Nano Sponge For Oil Spills
A nanowire membrane that sops up oil while repelling water could be used for cleaning up oil spills
A thin membranes made from a web of nanowires might become a promising tool for cleaning up oil spills and removing toxic contaminants from groundwater. When dipped into a mixture of water and oil, the 50-micrometer-thick membrane absorbs the oil, swelling to 20 times its weight.
Typically, oil spills are cleaned up using the same basic technology used 20 years ago. This includes using absorbent materials to sop up traces of oil. Natural sorbents such as hay and cellulose can soak up between 3 and 15 times their weight in oil, while synthetic polymer-based sorbents can absorb up to 70 times their weight. But these materials tend to absorb water as well.
The new membrane absorbs oil and solvents and is superhydrophobic, which means it strongly repels water. Two important characteristics give the membrane its exceptional oil-absorbing and water-repelling properties. First, the nanowire mesh has tiny pores, 10 nanometers wide on average, capable of wicking water and other liquids up into the membrane. To keep water away, researchers coat the membrane with water-repelling silicone. The result: water rolls off the surface of the membrane while oil travels quickly up the pores.
Researchers hope that the nanomembrane could reduce waste and lower the cost of cleaning oil spills from boats and in the petroleum industry, but it might be too early to say whether the nanomembrane might be practical in cleaning up large oil spills. The membrane's oil-sopping capacity might diminish at a real spill. Amount of debris usually seen with an oil spill might reduce the efficiency of the sorbent. For now the membrane could be good for removing water contaminants at factories or cleaning up smaller oil spills in garages and machine shops.
Patel-Predd, Prachi MIT Technology Review June 2, 2008 http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/20846/?a=f ,
Lahann, Joerg (2008) Environmental nanotechnology: Nanomaterials clean up Nature Nanotechnology 3, 320 - 321 (2008))
Opportunity: More efficient cleaning of oil spills
Threat: Possible threats of nano materials are not yet thoroughly researched
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