Manufacturing new materials to help treat polluted environments

In the journal Nature Communications, a group of French and Australian scientists said they have created a new material that is very light, reusable and especially strongly absorbs certain chemicals.

This will likely be a new "weapon" in the fight against environmental pollution, especially water pollution.

Oil spills near a fishing pier in Alabama. (Source: AFP/VNA)

The new material is extremely thin sheets of boron nitride (a chemical compound also known as white graphene) that can absorb large areas of oil spills, dissolved chemicals or dyes discharged from the textile, paper, and leather industries. These sheets have many tiny holes, can float on water and are also waterproof.

Once dropped into a body of water contaminated with oil, for example, the sheets immediately absorb the oil and change color. The process is very fast, taking about two minutes to completely remove the contaminated oil. Once saturated, the microscopic boron nitride sheets can be easily removed, cleaned, and reused several times.

According to the research team, materials commonly used to combat oil pollution such as activated carbon or natural fibers have much lower oil absorption than this new material. Meanwhile, other highly absorbent materials are difficult to reuse.

The research team said the cost of the new material and related technology is expected to have a huge impact on environmental protection./.

According to (TTXVN) - VT