Aerogel offers greener method of absorbing oil from water

If further developed, the technology may offer a cheaper and ‘greener’ method to absorb oil and heavy metals from water and other surfaces.

Shaoqin ‘Sarah’ Gong, a researcher at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID) and associate professor of biomedical engineering, graduate student Qifeng Zheng, and Zhiyong Cai, a project leader at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, have recently created and patented the new aerogel technology.

Aerogels, which are light and highly porous materials, are already used in a variety of applications ranging from insulation and aerospace materials to thickening agents in paints.

The aerogel prepared in Gong’s lab is made of cellulose nanofibrils (sustainable wood-based materials) and an environmentally friendly polymer. Furthermore, these cellulose-based aerogels are made using a freeze-drying process without the use of organic solvents.

‘For this material, one unique property is that it has superior absorbing ability for organic solvents - up to nearly 100 times its own weight,’ Gong said in a statement. ‘It also has strong absorbing ability for metal ions.’