New material to soak up oil spills?

Scientists said Tuesday, April 30, they had manufactured a lightweight and reusable material that can absorb up to 33 times its weight in certain chemicals — a possible new tool against water pollution. The team made nanosheets of boron nitride, also called white graphene, that were able to soak up a wide range of spilt oils, chemical solvents and dyes such as those discharged by the textile, paper and tannery industries. Highly porous, the sheets have a high surface area, can float on water and are water-repellent, the team from France and Australia wrote in the journal Nature Communications. Once the white sheets are dropped on an oil-polluted water surface “they immediately absorb the brown oil and become dark brown,” they wrote.


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