The Research team from IIT Guwahati developed a device which can separate oil from water

The Research team from IIT Guwahati developed a device which can separate oil from water

At IIT Guwahati, researcher have developed two membranes which can separate oil from water even under the harsh conditions. The membranes are super-water repellent in air and super-oil repellent in water can separate complex mixture of oil and water. The phenomenon of separating oil from water is of extreme importance considering its application in oil spill management.The research was led by Dr. Uttam Manna, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, IIT Guwahati and his team -- Mr. Avijit Das, Ms. Dibyangana Parbat and Ms. Arpita Shome and was published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. Speaking on the need of separating oil from water, Dr. Uttam Manna said, "Oil-water separation is of current relevance because many industries, such as mining, textiles, food and petrochemicals, produce massive volumes of oily wastewater, which must be treated before discharge." In recent times, material scientists haven cue from the environment for this purpose. The lotus leaf is water repellent so that it does not get soggy in water and fish has a body surface which is water repellent so that it can survive in polluted waters. Scientists have studies these surfaces so that they can be developed artificially for oil-water separation applications. However, the problem is that water and oil start to accumulate over time rendering them inefficient over time. "There is yet another problem with conventional demonstration, where the superhydrophobic and superoleophobic materials are mostly used for two-phase oil/water mixtures. However, those approaches are inappropriate for separation of three-phase mixtures of heavy oil, light oil and water," added Dr. Manna.To over the problem his team developed ‘a system of 'super liquid repellent' materials’ which have practical applications in industries.

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