On April 28 , 2010 , the Coast Guard attempted to sunburn off the oil that flooded into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the BP Deepwater Horizon crude oil spill . Image credit : Chris Graythen / Getty Images
Once oil contamination hits the ocean , it ’s notoriously hard to clean up . Researchers at the University of Wollongong , Australia think they ’ve detect a way to make the cognitive process easier by transforming spilled oil into a magnetic substance , New Scientistreports .
As they laid out in their research , late published in the journalACS Nano , the component that produce their function possible is smoothing iron oxide . When added to a small tank of water pollute with oil , atomic number 26 oxide nanoparticles bonded to the oil color droplet , making them magnetized . A round-eyed bar magnet was effective in dragging out the oil while pull up stakes the water supply behind .
It ’s still undecipherable whether the success of the laboratory experimentation can be replicate in the real world . For tumid - scale oil spill , investigator Yi Du tellsNew Scientistthe molecule could be dispersed over the sea and collected by ships outfitted with magnet . Iron oxide is a non-poisonous chemical compound , and any spare particle that do n’t latch onto the oil could theoretically be sucked up with magnets and used in the futurity .
The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon fossil oil spill no longer dominate the news show , but its effects are still being matt-up in the Gulf of Mexicoyears later . On top of the millions of barrels of harmful oil that deluge the ocean , even moretoxic chemicalswere spray to break up it up . Safer and more effective cleanup method could preclude more wildlife from losing their lives in similar disasters down the road . Researchers are presently look into recreating their experiment in a magnanimous cooler and they eventually aim to try it in the open sea after receive permission .
[ h / tNew Scientist ]
