Water vs. Oil

An Oil filter for Water
 By Stephen Ornes
September 13, 2012
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/09/an-oil-filter-for-water/

What do you do when your water that you were about to drink gets into contact with oil? There is a saying that water and oil don't mix but what if they do?

As a matter of fact the surfactant chemical --> brings them together making it hard for them to come apart. Filters have already been created, however those were the ones that take oil out leaving the water, these filters use up much more energy and are hard to clean after, when this new filter relies on gravity and and separates the water from the oil. This new filter could be used to  "help clean water at treatment plants or mop up oil spills" but it is too soon  to know for sure if it could help for big disasters. Anish Tuteja led the experiments, they tested different liquids and chemicals in the tube, still extracting the water and each time it worked making the water go into one tube and the other liquid into a separate.

"The scientists created the new device by dipping a base material — like a mesh or a net — into two chemicals. One of those chemicals loves water; the other repels oil. When a water-oil mixture now hits the filter, water — the heavier of the two liquids — gets pulled through, but oil does not."

99.9%of the oil stayed behind when the experiments were held and the water was nearly clean again.


I read about this article because now-a-days there are a lot of oil spills and people always trying to help, and here a new technology was created, sure it might not be god enough yet, but if scientists work on it then it might.