{"id":81718,"date":"2018-04-05T11:30:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T15:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718//?p=81718"},"modified":"2020-03-26T19:05:35","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T23:05:35","slug":"ucf-students-to-exhibit-oil-cleanup-invention-at-d-c-expo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718//ucf-students-to-exhibit-oil-cleanup-invention-at-d-c-expo/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718//","title":{"rendered":"UCF Students to Exhibit Oil-Cleanup Invention at D.C. Expo"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of 海角直播 students has developed super high-tech sponges to clean up ocean oil spills. The sponges soak up oil but repel water, leaving behind no toxic byproduct./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/n

It/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/u2019s a green solution with a bonus /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/u2013 the oil could be recycled for future use./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/n

The students will showcase their invention at the National Sustainable Design Expo, which is part of the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C., on April 7-8./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/n

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded UCF one of only 31 national student-design competition awards for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3). Students submit their designs, and those selected get $15,000 to prepare an exhibit to showcase their work. Only the best student designs from around the nation are showcased. While there, the teams also compete for an additional $75,000, which would allow them to further develop their inventions./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/u201cThis technology will lead to cleaner surface water and can be used for oil-spill remediation,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/u201d says Professor Woo Hyoung Lee, who is a principal investigator of the project and mentored the students./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/u201cThis technology will lead to cleaner surface water and can be used for oil-spill remediation,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/u201d said Professor Woo Hyoung Lee, who is a principal investigator of the project and mentored the students. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/u201cThe project has given our interdisciplinary team of students an excellent experience in how to work together to solve problems putting to use their areas of expertise and learning from each other. It/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/u2019s how the real world works./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/n

The students agree and said they learned as much about working together and managing a project as they did putting their academic and technical skills to use./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/n

The tech harks back to the idea of keeping solutions simple./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/n

Currently, chemicals and dispersants are used to remove oil during a spill, but these also create byproduct pollution. Instead, the UCF superhydrophobic MoS2-coated sponges take in oil while simultaneously rejecting water. They leave no residue behind. The challenge is that MoS2 sponges require complex fabrication. The team of students used microscopy and spectroscopy to determine the best way to make the sponge. The conclusion was that MoS2  should be layered along the porous areas of the sponges. The dip-dry method resulted in durability and reduced cost. The sponges could be turned into mats that would be deployed again and again after they are cleaned, keeping costs low./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/81718/n