Magnets and nanoparticles could be used to clean up oil spills
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029908
New Scientist : Oil’s stickiness is what makes it hard to remove from plants and animals, so cleaning up spills before they reach fragile environments is crucial. Yi Du of the University of Wollongong, Australia, and his colleagues have found a quick and potentially cheap way of cleaning up oil spills; their method that uses iron oxide nanoparticles and magnets. In tests in small water tanks, the 25 nm particles bonded with the oil, making it easy to collect using a simple magnet. The next step is testing the technique in larger tanks to see if it scales up well before testing it in open water. The iron oxide particles are nontoxic, and any excess could also be collected with magnets and reused, which would limit their risk to the environment.
