“Our sponge material dislikes water and it loves oil-like contaminants such as bio-oil, mineral-oil, body oil, plant oil, petroleum, and motor oil”, Mihri Ozkan, one of the wonder material makers and professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, told me.
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Scientists have created a bathing suit that is made out of an incredible material capable of helping to clean the ocean.
The Sponge cannot only be incorporated into swimcaps and wetsuits, but the material can absorbed up to 25 times its own weight. Thanks to a smart material that absorbs pollutants from the ocean as you swim.
Mihri Ozkan called Sponge a “super material” that is extremely environment-friendly and cost-effective. Approximately four years ago, the team started to develop the material to clean up chemical and oil spills and also for water desalinization purposes.
It was the architecture and design firm Eray Carbajo and its partners, Gonzalo Carbajo, Inanc Eray and Pinar Guvenc, who came forth with the idea of using the material as a main component in wearable technology.
Being one of the most promising ventures into wearable technology with a touch of eco-conscious ideology, it’s not surprising that the Sponge material won first place in the worldwide design competition Reshape 2015.
The reusable material, dubbed the Sponge, is made from heated sucrose and repels water while absorbing contaminants, the University of California, Riverside reported. “The final form of the 3D print shell was obtained through the various iterations of the same undulating form”, the team wrote. As demonstrated in the above video, The Sponge Suit absorbs everything *except* water and traps the contaminants in its pores to keep them from coming into contact with the wearer’s skin. Placed into that netting, however, are opaque inserts made from a material known as Sponge.
According to the team behind the project this design could be developed in to a host of different water-based outfits. This can be done up to 20 times before the inserts start losing their absorbency.
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“We aim for a future where everyone, with any shape and form of swimming outfit, can contribute to the cleanliness of the seas by a sports activity or simply a leisurely summer vacation”, said in the official Reshape site.
