AsianScientist (Jun. 21, 2016) – Researchers in Singapore have invented a smart oil-scavenging material that could help clean up oil spills efficiently and rapidly. The work has been published in Chemistry of Materials.
Large-scale oil spills, where hundreds of tons of petroleum products are accidentally released into the oceans, not only have devastating effects on the environment but have significant socioeconomic impact as well.
Current cleanup techniques are not very efficient and may even cause further pollution or damage to the environment. They include the use of toxic detergent-like compounds called dispersants, or burning of the oil slick, resulting in incomplete removal of the oil. The remaining oil molecules are eventually spread out over a larger area by wind and waves.
Researchers from the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) set out to develop new compounds that dissolve easily in environmentally-friendly solvents and gel rapidly upon contact with oil.
Derived from highly soluble small organic molecules, the supergelators they designed self-assemble into a 3D network within minutes, trapping the oil molecules into clumps. The clumps can then be easily skimmed off the water’s surface.
“The most interesting and useful characteristic of our molecules is their ability to stack themselves on top of each other. These stacked columns allow our researchers to create and test different molecular constructions, while finding the best structure that will yield the desired properties,” said Dr. Zeng Huaqiang, IBN team leader and principal research scientist, who led the study.
The supergelators were tested on various types of weathered and unweathered crude oil in seawater, and were found to be effective in solidifying all of them. In addition, the supergelators showed no toxicity to human cells nor zebrafish embryos and larvae.
The article can be found at: Ren et al. (2016) Instant Room-Temperature Gelation of Crude Oil by Chiral Organogelators.
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Source: Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology; Photo: Ingrid Taylar/Flickr/CC.
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