Oil spills at sea or food spills in the kitchen may be cleaned up with a multipurpose textile layered with semi-conducting nanostructures. The hydrophobic fabric developed by Australian researchers repels water and attracts oil and has proven effective in mopping up crude oil from fresh and salt water.

Nanostructures on the surface of the fabric. Image source: Queensland University of Technology Commercially available nylon with an interwoven seed layer of silver was used, but researchers from Queensland University of Technology, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology say that any fabric would be suitable. Electrochemical deposition of copper onto the nylon is followed by addition of tetracyanoanthraquinodimethane to form oil-trapping nanorods.

Simple to produce and deemed chemically robust, the developers says the material is also multifunctional. The self-cleaning fabric demonstrates antibacterial properties due to the presence of copper. Semi-conducting properties of the textile result in organic water pollutant degradation when exposed to light. Researchers next plan to assess the scalability of the material.