Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

1 Environmentally friendly oil spill response through

adsorption
Every year, large quantities of crude oil are released into the oceans through oil spills.
Here the oil damages flora and fauna and can even destroy entire ecosystems. A quick
and complete cleaning of the waters is existential to prevent long-term damage. For
this purpose, there are various existing processes, but they are often not optimal or even
harmful to the environment.

In this work I deal with the so-called oil skimmer boat, which adsorbs the oil with the
help of suitable materials on the water surface and thus removes it from the water. The
method of adsorption is particularly suitable because no chemical bonds are formed.
More complex structures, such as nonwovens, are permanently contaminated as they
absorb the oil. Accordingly, they can only be used once. Adsorption ensures simple
and complete separation of the oil from the material used for removal. As a result, it
can be reused until the material wears out and is much more environmentally friendly
than absorbent materials, such as nonwovens, which normally have to be disposed of
after just one use.

My work deals with finding a good and environmentally friendly oil adsorbent to
establish new methods of fighting oil catastrophes. To begin, I had to test the following
basic hypotheses: A nonpolar substance attracts mineral oil better than a polar one
because a nonpolar substance has similar electronic properties to mineral oil.
Furthermore, an increase in surface area, for example by roughening, leads to more
adsorption for the same volume. In addition, an ideal base material had to be found.
The focus was on plastics because they are inexpensive, easy to process and robust. In
addition, their material composition is similar to that of mineral oil, since both are
based on carbon compounds. Based on this, I tried to find an ideal treatment method
and maximize the adsorption capabilities of my material first physically by roughening
and then chemically by a water-repellant coating.

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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

To increase the surface area and flexibility of my process, I changed the shape of the
material used. For this, I changed from a tube to free-floating bodies in the form of
spheres.

2 Theoretical foundations of my project

The theoretical basis of my work is adsorption and how it can be influenced. The
components of petroleum and plastics as well as previous methods to combat oil spills
are also essential parts of my work.

Adsorption is the attachment of molecules or atoms to a surface. It is distinguished

from absorption, in which substances penetrate the interior of the absorbing substance.
The adsorption behavior of a surface is based on its nature as well as the Van der Waals
forces acting during adsorption. For polar substances, hydrogen bonds and dipole-
dipole forces can also act.

Fabrics with different properties adhere differently to different surfaces due to different
surface and fabric structures.

Adsorbent substances can be divided into hydrophilic and hydrophobic adsorbents.

Hydrophilic adsorbents are polar and hydrophobic adsorbents are non-polar. Non-polar
substances can be adsorbed with a non-polar adsorbent, and polar substances can be
adsorbed with a polar adsorbent.

Many defects or unevennesses in a surface increase its size considerably. After this
surface enlargement, more substances can adhere, which is why a very rough substance
usually adsorbs well.

Mineral oil is generally a mixture of a variety of substances, but is mainly composed

of many hydrocarbons. The composition can vary depending on where it is found.
Alkanes are usually the main constituent. These are present either as a chain, in
branched, unbranched or ring form. Aromatics are also present.

The main elemental constituents, according to their mass fractions, are carbon with up
to 90%, hydrogen with about 10% and small amounts of oxygen, sulfur and nitrogen.
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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

In general, plastics can be described as polymers. They are organic macromolecules

composed of many small molecules (monomers). The relevant plastics in my work are
Polyethylene (PE) (Fig. 21), Polyvinylchloride (PVC) (Fig. 22), Tetrafluoroethylene-
hexafluoropropylene copolymer (FEP) (Fig. 23) and Acrylnitril-Styrol-Acrylat-
Copolymer (ASA) (Fig. 24). PE is a non-polar plastic, PVC is slightly polar, FEP is
strongly polar and ASA is a mix of three different non-polar and slightly polar
monomers.

If there is an accident involving a ship or platform carrying oil, it will usually spill into
the seas and remain there. Depending on the size of the oil spill and the other prevailing
conditions, there are different methods of oil spill response. By spreading dispersants
on the oil spill, it is distributed more quickly on the sea, so the natural degradation
processes can take place faster (chemical dispersion). Due to these degradation
processes and the chemicals used, more pollutants, such as toxic solvents, are taken up
by marine organisms. If a petroleum layer is sufficiently thick and contains less than
30% water, offshore burning can be used. However, this method releases incompletely
burned portions of the oil and pollutants into the air. There is also bacteria that can
break down the oil, sometimes, additional nutrients are added to speed up the process
(bioremediation). The performance of this method is limited because various petroleum
constituents are poorly degraded and the rate of degradation by the bacteria is limited.
Specially designed boats can use oil adsorbing rollers to remove oil from the water
surface through skimming mechanisms. This method is mostly limited by rough
conditions on the sea. The first inspiration for my project was the so-called "oil
skimmer boat", a former "Jugend forscht" project. The boat is supposed to adsorb the
spilled oil with the help of a plastic hose, which is attached to the stern of the boat in a
ring shape and parallel to the water surface. The oil is then stripped off and stored on
the boat so that the oil can be recycled later and no environmentally harmful chemicals
remain in the sea (Fig. 1).

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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

3 Experimental approach

First, my goal was to find a suitable base material. For this purpose, I examined various
plastic hoses using my test process. At the beginning of my research, I focused on
testing two basic hypotheses (chapter 1). The first hypothesis is that substances that
have an electric field similar to petroleum attract it, the second hypothesis is that
rougher surfaces are able to adsorb more petroleum.

To test my first hypothesis, I looked for a material that was as similar as possible in
structure to petroleum. My first choice was polyethylene, since its electronic structure
is similar to the non-polar main components of petroleum. I also chose PVC, which is
polar in contrast to PE. Later on, I also tested FEP and ASA to find the most suitable
plastic.

3.1 Finding the ideal material and treatment

To test my hypotheses, I had to develop a suitable test process. It had to be reproducible

and should simulate the actual conditions in the sea. Testing was done using one liter
of salt water (c (NaCl)=0.25 mol/l) and 80 ml of a viscous mineral oil. Industrial
mineral oil is closest to the chemical structure of petroleum without containing volatile
and/or toxic substances, since it is a petroleum distillate. To simulate the stripping
process of the oil, I used a rubber plug with matching hole size. My test process is
shown in Fig. 2.

I tested my second hypothesis by roughening the chosen plastics to different degrees.

For roughening, I used 180, 80, and 40 grit sandpaper, with 180 being the finest and
40 being the coarsest. In addition, I also tested a hose that had not been roughened.

Fig. 3 describes the oil stripped off in grams for PE tubes roughened to different
degrees. The value in the square brackets indicates the grit size of the sand paper used.
The values were obtained in four series of 20 measurements each.

Figure 8 shows that [80] adsorbed the most oil. The same tests were carried out with
PVC, giving comparable results. This confirmed my hypothesis. It also shows that
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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

sandpaper that is too rough, in this case grit [40], no longer just roughens the material,
but primarily removes it. This means that the desired effect of increasing the surface
area is no longer guaranteed for the same volume, and the amount of adsorbed oil
decreases again.

To find out whether polar or non-polar plastics adsorb petroleum better, I compared
how much oil a PVC and a PE hose can adsorb per cm². I did 20 measurements with
each plastic and calculated the adsorbed oil per cm². The results are shown in Fig. 4.
Smooth PVC ([/]) adsorbs proportionally the least oil, followed by smooth PE.
Roughened PVC, labeled only [80] in the diagram, was already able to adsorb
considerably more oil. However, roughened PE is clearly the most efficient.

The first result is that a non-polar material, i.e. as similar as possible to petroleum,
which is additionally roughened by sandpaper, adsorbs the oil better than a polar and
smooth tube.

After this first success, I performed four series of measurements with 20 measurements
each of ASA and FEP and calculated the adsorbed oil quantity in grams per cm². The
test setup and the used roughening stages were kept. Fig. 5 summarizes my results.
ASA adsorbed the most oil of all the plastics tested, roughened ASA was able to adsorb
36% more oil than my previous favorite, roughened PE.

Fig. 6 compares ASA and PE, once unroughened ([/]) and once roughened with
sandpaper ([80]). It can be seen that even unroughened ASA, represented by the green
bar, adsorbs more oil than roughened PE, represented here by the orange bar. Based
on these results, I selected ASA as the base material and now tried to further optimize
its surface chemically.

Based on my first hypothesis, I decided to apply a hydrophobic coating to my base

material. Hydrophobic materials are lipophilic, so I hoped to use this effect here. To do
this, I used a so-called lotus coating, which works by forming nanostructures, to treat
the ASA hose.

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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

The experimental setup was retained, as were roughening stages. Fig. 7 shows the
adsorbed oil amount in grams per cm² for ASA with and without coating. The yellow
bar represents roughened and coated ASA and clearly shows that the combination of
coating and roughening the surface is most effective. Coated and roughened ASA
adsorbed 190% of what uncoated, smooth ASA had adsorbed in oil.

These results again confirmed my hypothesis on the relationship between oil

adsorption capacity and hydrophobicity. This is due to the lotus effect, on which the
coating is based. The contact angle becomes too large for wetting with water due to the
lotus effect. Additionally, the coating contains lipophilic substances, allowing the
surface to adsorb more oil.

Using the scanning electron microscope at the Schülerforschungszentrum Nordhessen,

I was able to perform a graphical surface analysis of the hoses. Fig. 8 shows the surface
of an untreated ASA hose. It is easy to see that the surface is uniform and has no defects.
Fig. 9 shows an ASA hose roughened with grit size 80. Unevenly distributed defects
in the surface structure can be seen. These lead to a considerable increase in surface
area and thus contribute to better oil adsorption capacity. In Fig. 10, nanostructures of
the lotus coating can be seen. These create a lotus effect that drastically reduces the
contact angle of oil, as shown in Fig. 11 and 12. This allows the oil to wet the ASA
surface better and thus be adsorbed by it more easily.

I was able to photographically document the effect of my treatment with the help of
the Gaskatel company. By taking pictures with a photomicroscope, I determined the
contact angle of water and mineral oil on differently treated ASA tubing.

Fig. 11 shows a drop of water on the left and a drop of mineral oil 80W90 on untreated
ASA on the right. The drop of water has a much smaller interface with the ASA than
the mineral oil for the same amount of liquid. ASA is therefore much better wettable
by oil than by water, even when untreated.

Fig. 12 shows the contact angles of water (left) and mineral oil (right) on ASA
roughened with 80 grit sandpaper and treated with a lotus coating. The contact angle
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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

of water increases from 60° to 110°. The contact angle of oil, on the other hand,
decreases from 40° to 12°. As a result of my treatment, the surface can now be wetted
very well by oil and can accordingly remove a great amount of it from the water. Water,
on the other hand, can only adhere to the surface very poorly or not at all.

The most effective of the treatment methods used was the combination of roughening
and treatment of the plastic with a lotus coating. This fact is shown in the diagram (Fig.
13). With my work so far, I have found a combination of methods that increases the oil
adsorption capacity by 120% compared to my starting material.

4 Application concept: boat with free floating objects

The first application concept was the oil skimmer boat (chapter 2) with a hose for oil
adsorption. The risk of grounding exists, however, as soon as the oil spill is located in
an area inaccessible to ships, such as a reef. Since this is where a conventional oil
skimmer boat would reach its limits, it is very difficult if not impossible to intervene
at these locations. In order to increase the process flexibility of oil adsorption on the
water, I considered further developing my existing method in addition to the existing
hose/oil skimmer mechanism. my idea was a completely free-floating form that is not
tied to the position of the boat (Fig. 14).

To this end, I developed another hypothesis: more oil can be adsorbed with free-
floating objects, such as spheres, than with a hose for the same volume, because a
sphere has a larger surface area than a hollow cylinder (i.e., the hose).

My choice for the geometric figure of free-floating bodies was initially spheres. In
contrast to bodies with corners and edges, spheres run little risk of becoming tilted or
damaged, e.g. by breaking off a tip. For the same reason, spheres are ideally suited for
my imagined separation process of the oil by means of centrifugal forces. Furthermore,
spheres offer the advantage that they rotate freely in the water and can thus be
completely wetted. This is further enhanced by the wave action that naturally occurs in
the sea. This means that waves, which are more of an obstacle for the hose, can be used
as an advantage.
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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

Since free-floating objects in the form of spheres are now used for adsorption instead
of the hose, the concept for the boat used must also be revised. Basically, the oil can
now no longer be stripped off the balls. Another method would therefore have to be
used to replace the scraper mechanism (Fig. 15). I decided to use a centrifugal drum in
which the oil is removed from the balls by centrifugal forces. This method is simple
and easy to implement even on a boat. As with the previous hose-based concept, the
removed oil is collected and can be reused. The balls can be reintroduced into the oil
spill after this cleaning process (Fig. 17).

To recover the spheres from the water, I developed two methods: On the one hand, the
recovery can be done by a kind of large sieve or net, and on the other hand by means
of magnets installed inside the spheres (Fig. 16). The magnets make it possible to pull
the spheres back to the ship or at least close to it by means of a magnetic field. The
attraction process of the ASA spheres in the oil slick as well as the boat can be seen
schematically in Fig. 17.

In order to verify that spheres are suitable as I thought, I had to develop a new testing
process. I needed a simulation of wave motion, since waves are naturally present at
sea. To simulate the wave motion, I used a standard laboratory oscillator. To obtain
comparable data, I kept the composition of the oil-water-salt mixture unchanged from
the experiments with the tubes (Fig. 18a). I used a commercial salad spinner to simulate
the spinning drum (Fig. 18b).

I designed the PLA as well as ASA balls used in a CAD program and then produced
them from PLA or ASA filament using a 3D printer. I decided to use this method
because it allowed me to flexibly create spheres of any dimensions from the appropriate
base materials. The spheres had a diameter of 20mm and accordingly a surface area of
approx. 12.6 cm² (Fig. 19).

Figure 20 shows the average values for removed oil in grams per cm² for PLA and
ASA spheres (d = 20mm) from different measurement series with 20 measurements
each.

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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

In the first series of measurements, I tested 3D-printed PLA spheres that were neither
roughened nor coated. PLA served as a comparative material in order to have another
comparison between another plastic and our starting material, ASA. I chose PLA
because it was a standard 3D printing material that was suitable for sphere production,
unlike our previously tested plastics. The PLA balls were able to remove about 0.036
g of oil per cm² from the water. The second series of measurements also consisted of
20 measurements. I tested 3D-printed and untreated spheres made of ASA. On average,
0.038 g of oil could be removed from the water per cm² of the spheres. In the third
series of measurements, I tested ASA spheres I had previously treated with a lotus
coating. Here, an average of 0.055 g oil per cm² could be removed from the water. In
the fourth series of measurements, I tested coated and roughened spheres made of ASA.
On average, 0.059 g of oil could be removed from the water per cm². These
measurements once again support the effectiveness of my surface modifications and
the selection of ASA as the starting material.

The key advantage of spheres or other free-floating objects over a hose, besides their
greater flexibility, is their larger surface area. In addition to that, the use of spheres
would be more environmentally friendly because more surface area is available for
adsorption for the same mass.

A practical comparison of a hose with a diameter of 60 cm (wall thickness 15 cm)

versus spheres with a diameter of 5 cm results in a 35-fold increase in surface area for
the same material consumption. Since the focus of my project was also on
sustainability, my optimized process allows me to put approx. 9000 balls on the water
instead of a 1 m long hose with the same material consumption and weight.

Theoretically, the surface I developed and modified is suitable to fight an oil spill
effectively, quickly and without harmful effects on the environment. The ASA plastic
I selected for this purpose, as well as its surface coating, are suitable for practical work
because they are resistant to the various environmental factors to which the hose will
be exposed. These include, first and foremost, salt water, sunlight and atmospheric
oxygen. It should be noted, however, that I was never able to work with real petroleum,
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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

as it contains toxic and highly volatile substances. Instead, I used mineral oil, which is
a petroleum distillate, which is why it is very close to real petroleum, especially in its
chemical nature.

My newly developed system of free-floating spheres also makes my method more

flexible as it can be used in water regions, such as reefs, where the ship itself cannot
go. This allows a faster and more flexible response before the oil is further dispersed
or sinks.

The surface I developed is capable of removing 0.065 grams of oil per cm² per pass.
This means that even a hose (10 m long x 60 cm in diameter) can adsorb 12.3 kg of oil
per pass. In reality, not only would several hoses be used, but also larger and, above
all, longer ones. If instead of a 1 m long hose with a diameter of 60 cm, spheres with a
diameter of 5 cm were used, this would mean that with an adsorption capacity of 0.065
g of oil per cm², about 45 kg of oil could be removed from the water per pass. This is
about 35 times as much oil as with a hose of the same volume and weight. Thus, my
sphere-based method is not only more flexible to use, but also more efficient and
sustainable.

Over all, my method is very simple and therefore not very error-prone. If errors do
occur, they can be easily corrected due to the simplicity of the system. This is not the
case with more complicated ships, for example those with rollers. In addition to that,
the more advanced method with spheres makes it easier to compensate for failures
during maintenance. The production of suitable hoses as well as spheres and coating
materials would be cheap and possible on an industrial standard. Most importantly, my
method is environmentally friendly, setting it apart from existing methods. These either
introduce toxic and polluting substances into the ecosystem during the oil removal
process, or use only single-use materials that must be destroyed after their use,
including the petroleum they collect. My surface, on the other hand, can be used until
material fatigue and additionally ensures that further use of the oil is possible, as it does
not have to be decomposed by chemicals or burned off.

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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

Appendix
Scraper Driver

Figure 1: Oil removal with a scraper

Fig. 2: Prepared tubes with plugs (2a) and experimental setup

(2b)

PEPE
Öloil
proper
cm²cm²
0,029

0,027

0,025 [/]
g/cm²

[180]
0,023
[80]

[40]
0,021

0,019

0,017
1 2 3 4
measurements
Messungen

Fig. 2: Test series for roughening of the surface on PE; indicates the
adsorbed oil quantity

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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

Ölmenge pro cm²

Oil per cm²
0,029

0,027

0,025

0,023 PVC [/]

g/cm2

PVC [80]
0,021 PE [/]
PE [80]
0,019

0,017

0,015
1 2 3 4
measurements
Messungen

Fig. 4: Measurements for comparing PE and PVC

Oil per cm² pro cm2

Ölmenge
0,045

0,04

FEP [/]
0,035
FEP [80]
g/cm2

ASA [/]
0,03 ASA [80]

0,025

0,02
1 2 3 4
measurements
Messungen

Fig. 5: Adsorbed oil for ASA and FEP

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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

Ölmenge
Oil per cm²pro cm²
0,045

0,040
PE [/]

0,035
PE [80]
g/cm²

0,030
ASA [/]
0,025
ASA [80]
0,020

0,015
1 2 3
measurements 4
Messreihen
Fig. 6: Adsorbed oil in measurements of ASA and PE

Fig. 7: Comparison of ASA with and without coating

Fig. 8: Electron microscope Fig. 9: Electron Fig. 10: Electron

image (400x magnification)
of an untreated piece of ASA
microscope image (1000x
Magnification) of ASA
roughened with 80 grid
microscope image (40000x
magnification) of ASA
roughened with 80 grid
and coated with water-
repellant coating
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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

Fig. 11: Contact-angle of water (left) and mineral-oil

80W90 on untreated ASA (the contact angle is a method of
measuring how well something is adsorbed by a surface)

Fig. 12: Contact-angle of water (left) and mineral-oil

(80W90) (right) on ASA roughened with 80 grid and
coated with water-repellant coating

Comparison of all tested plastics

ASA
coated

Fig. 13: Comparison of the adsorption capacities of all

the plastic hoses I tested.

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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

Fig. 14: Flow-chart for sphere-based

concept

Centrifuge

Conveyer belt

Neodymium magnet

Fig. 16: Cross-section of

an ASA sphere with
neodymium magnet
inside
Fig. 15: Centrifuge with spheres on the
boat (schematic)

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 Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

ASA-spheres

Fig. 17: ASA spheres in the oil spill and new oil skimmer boat with magnet to attract the
spheres

Fig. 18: Experimental setup (18a, left) and salad spinner with balls (18b, right) before oil
removal by centrifugal forces

Fig. 19: ASA-

sphere (d =
20 mm) made
with the 3D-
Printer

Fig. 20: Oil in gramm per cm² for PLA and ASA spheres
(d = 20 mm) with different modifications

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 Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

Fig. 22: Fig. 23: structure of

Fig. 21: structure structure of
of Polyethylene Tetrafluorethylene-
Polyvinylchloride Hexafluorpropylene-
[8] [9] Copolymer [10]

Fig. 24:
structure of
Acrylnitril-Styrol-
Acrylat-
Copolymer [11]

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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

Sources

[1] Kilian, U. (27. 12 2019). Spektrum.de. Von Spektrum.de:

https://www.spektrum.de/lexikon/physik/adsorption/230 [last viewed on 04.01.2021]
[2] https://www.chemie-schule.de/KnowHow/Adsorption [last viewed on
04.01.2021]
[3] Chen, W., & Duan, L. (27. 12 2019). ACS Publications. Von ACS Publications:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es071230h [last viewed on 04.01.2021]
[4] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-18235-8_2 [last viewed on
04.01.2021]
[5] https://www.wotech-technical-
media.de/womag/ausgabe/2018/06/12_med_schofer_katheter_T3_06j2018/12_med_s
chofer_katheter_T3_06j2018-web-images/schofer46.jpg?m=1528604911&
[last viewed on 04.01.2021]
[6] https://www.dataphysics-instruments.com/knowledge/understanding-
interfaces/contact-angle/ [last viewed on 04.01.2021]
[7] https://www.chemie-
schule.de/Organische_Chemie/Zusammensetzung_des_Erdoels.php [last viewed on
04.01.2021]
[8]
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Polyethylene_repeat_unit.svg
[last viewed on 04.01.2021]
[9] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Polyvinylchlorid.svg [last
viewed on 04.01.2021]
[10]
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Fluorinated_ethylene_propyle
ne.png [last viewed on 04.01.2021]
[11] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Styrene-
acrylonitrile.svg/549px-Styrene-acrylonitrile.svg.png [last viewed on 04.01.2021]
[11]
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Polyacrylate.svg/481p
x-Polyacrylate.svg.png [last viewed on 04.01.2021]
[12] https://www.chemie-schule.de/KnowHow/Ölpest [last viewed on 04.01.2021]
[13] Atkins, P.W., & de Paula, J. (2006). Physikalische Chemie. Weinheim: Wiley-
VCH.
[14] Peter, K., & Vollhardt, C. (2011). Organische Chemie. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH.

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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

List of figures

Fig. 1: Oil removal by means of a stripping mechanism.

Fig. 2: Prepared tubes with stoppers (2a) and experimental setup (2b)

Fig. 3: Test series for roughening the surface of PE; indicates the amount of adsorbed
oil

Fig. 4: Test series comparing PE and PVC

Fig. 5: Adsorbed amount of oil for ASA and FEP

Fig. 6: Adsorbed oil in test series comparing ASA and PE

Fig. 7: Amount of oil in grams per cm² for ASA with and without coating

Fig. 8: Electron micrograph (magnification 400x) of an untreated piece of ASA

Fig. 9: Electron micrograph (magnification 1000x) of a piece of ASA roughened with

grain size 80

Fig. 10: Electron micrograph (magnification 40000x) of a piece of ASA roughened and
coated with 80 grit.

Fig. 11: Contact angle of water (left) and mineral oil 80W90 (right) on untreated ASA

Fig. 12: Contact angle of water (left) and mineral oil 80W90 (right) on coated and
roughened ASA

Fig. 13: Comparison of adsorption capacities of all plastic hoses tested by us

Fig. 14: Flow chart of the concept with spheres

Fig. 15: Spinning drum with balls (mechanism on the boat)

Fig. 16: Cross-section of an ASA sphere with neodymium magnet inside

Fig. 17: ASA balls in oil spill and new oil skimmer boat with magnet to attract the balls

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Luna Stockmann – oil adsorbing surfaces for fighting oil spills

Fig. 18: Experimental setup (23a, left) and salad spinner with balls (23b, right) before
oil removal by centrifugal forces

Fig. 19: ASA ball (d = 20mm) from the 3D printer

Fig. 20: Amount of oil in grams per cm² for PLA and ASA spheres (d = 20mm) in
different modifications.

Fig. 21: Structural formula of polyethylene [8].

Fig. 22: Structural formula of polyvinyl chloride [9].

Fig. 23: Structural formula of tetrafluoroethylene-hexafluoropropylene copolymer

[10].

Fig. 24: Structural formula acrylonitrile-styrene-acrylate copolymer [11].

20