Doesn’t your heart ache at the sight of oil-covered sea creatures on TV when there’s an oil spill? It does, doesn’t it, but accidents do happen. So from now on, thanks to the University of Bristol, we have a cleansing solution with no side effects: a soap!
Obtained by mixing iron with inert surfactant materials made of chloride and bromide, the soap reacts to magnetic fields. Why is that important? Because you can then gather it very easily after it has cleaned up the oil. It practically does all the hard work!
The Institut Laue-Langevin vouches for the soap’s magnetic attraction, after it has tested it with neutrons and small, irony lumps took shape when a magnetic field was nearby.
According to Professor Julian Eastoe from the Institut, this surfactant, meaning the soap, has very flexible features too, since you can modify its electrical conductivity, melting point, size and shape of aggregates by removing or approaching the magnet.
For now, magnetic soaps aren’t going to be commercialized for mass consumption any time soon, but because they can be collected from the waters instead of just being let there, they store a huge potential as water treatments or industrial cleaning. It’s like dirt vanishing into thin air!
[via TG Daily]
