Foam sucks up and releases oil like a sponge

摘要

OIL begonel A new material can absorb 90 times its own weight in spilled oil and then be squeezed out like a sponge and reused. It could make it easier and greener to clean up oil spills. Most commercial products for soaking up oil, called sorbents, are only good for a single use before they are incinerated together with the oil. But the oil sponge created by Seth Darling at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and his colleagues is different. It consists of a simple foam made of polyurethane or polyimide plastics and coated with "oil-loving" silane molecules for capturing oil.