麻豆淫院

(麻豆淫院Org.com) -- Water and oil may not mix, but, like two boxers nearing the end of the final round, they can get awfully tangled up.

Now, Michigan Technological University scientists Yoke Khin Yap and Jaroslaw Drelich have created a filter that separates the two substances as quickly and cleanly as a ref breaking up a clinch.

Their fine, stainless steel mesh is coated with carbon nanotubes about 10 microns across. 鈥淭hey have a super-honeycomb structure that repels water,鈥� says Yap, an associate professor of physics. 鈥淏ut they like organic stuff, like oil.鈥�

The team poured an emulsion of water and gasoline over the filter to test it. Sure enough, the gas dripped through; all but 20 percent of the water stayed put.

It鈥檚 not as if you could filter the Gulf of Mexico through the device, Yap cautions. Their prototype is about the size of a quarter. Plus, the water drops can actually clog the spaces between the nanotubes, making it hard for anything to get through. 鈥淏ut the attractive thing is that it鈥檚 so simple,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t runs by gravitation.鈥�

Drelich, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, thinks the filter has real-world potential. 鈥淭hese were just our first set of experiments,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e could supply electricity to it to heat it up, reducing the oil鈥檚 viscosity and evaporating the water. We could also create a vacuum that would suck oil through the filter to the other side. A good engineering design could get rid of clogging problem.鈥�

Such technology could help purify oil from Canada鈥檚 tar sands, which is contaminated by traces of corrosive salt water. Or, it could be used to recover oil from the wastewater of ocean-going vessels. It might even be able to scrub the oil inside your car鈥檚 engine.

鈥淥ur design would be completely novel, because it relies on nanotechnology, and it could be competitive,鈥� says Drelich.

Their work was published in the Feb. 2 edition of the journal Carbon and is funded by the National Science Foundation.