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Tanner Ogle 2-8-22
The wooden sponge is a sponge made of balsa wood that has been manipulated to be much more porous and able to soak up oil. It was developed in 2018 by a group of Chinese researchers led by Xiaoqing Wang as an effective way to clean up oil spills. Tests conducted showed that with different oils, the sponge could soak up between 16-41 times its own weight in oils, and could be reused up to around 10 times before the effectiveness went down at all.
The sponge is made by adding chemicals to balsa wood that break down the wood and leave behind a cellulose skeleton. Then, the sponge is freeze dried and more chemicals are added that attract oil but repel water. The material is also very robust, showing nearly perfect retention after 100 40% compressions, and has a reversible compression of 60%, and designs for a contraption to clean up oil spills have already been made using wooden sponges.
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