Super cleaning swimsuits remove contaminants from waterways

摘要

It may seem farfetched that a material derived from heated sucrose can repel water while absorbing harmful contaminants. But University of California (UC) Riverside engineers have created this reusable material -they call it Sponge. University engineers and partners of the architecture and design firm Eray Carbajo (New York) teamed up to use this material in a swimsuit that won first place at the international Reshape 15 Wearable Technology Competition for its ability to clean water as a person swims. The material has a highly porous structure that is super hydrophobic, which means it repels water, but also absorbs up to 25 times its own weight in contaminants. It does not harm the environment and is cost-effective to produce, said Mihri Ozkan, electrical engineering professor at UC Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering. Contaminants are trapped in the inner pores of the material, so they don't touch skin. And absorbed materials are not released unless the material is heated at a temperature exceeding 1000℃, according to a UC Riverside news release.