Big Reaction: a new tool to fight oil spills

Big Reaction: a new tool to fight oil spills

Oleo Sponge
Oleo sponge soaks up oil.

This exciting new foam was produced by Argonne National Laboratory as a method to help combat oil spills.

This polyurethane-based foam can absorb 30-90x its weight in oil. It’s created by first coating the foam in aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and then using a silane (SiH4) agent to make the surface oleophilic. Since it’s a foam structure, the large surface area helps it soak up so much oil.

Argonne produced a video to show off their “Oleo Sponge”:

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