Swell Gel Mops Up Spills

From ABC Science Online:

Japanese chemists have devised a gel that swells up to 500 times its size when in contact with solvents, a property that could one-day be harnessed to absorb dangerous industrial spills. A team led by Associate Professor Kazuki Sada of Kyushu University publish the research online in the journal Nature Materials. The new jelly-like substance is a successor to polyelectrolyte gels, super-absorbant polymers that expand many hundred times their dry weight when in contact with water or other polar liquids. But polyelectrolyte gels, which are perhaps best known for absorbing moisture in nappies, cannot tackle organic, or carbon-based, solvents.

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