Want to help clean polluted water? It might be as easy as slipping on this bikini.
Mihri and Cengiz Ozkan, professors at the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering, along with Ph.D student Daisy Patino and Ph. D graduate Hamed Bay, developed a material named Sponge. The engineer designed it to clean up oil and chemical spills and desalinizing water.
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The material, which is created from heated sucrose, has "a highly porous structure that is super hydrophobic, meaning it repels water, but also absorbs harmful contaminants," a press release explains.
“This is a super material that is not harmful to the environment and very cost-effective to produce,” Mihri Ozkan says in the release.
Pinar Guvenc, Inanc Eray and Gonzalo Carbajo, partners at the architecture and design firm Eray Carbajo, had the idea to incorporate Sponge into clothing and helped design the initial swim suit mockup. They discovered a way to mold the material into the shape of a bikini by encapsulating it in a net made of 3D-printed rubber.
The Sponge, which can also be incorporated into swim caps and wetsuits, apparently absorbs up to 25 times its own weight. The drawn in pollutants are released only when the material is heated at temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius. The University of California team claims Sponge has proven effective for up to 20 uses, after which it is recommended that the fabric be replaced.
This innovative design recently won first place at the Reshape 15 Wearable Technology Competition and is awaiting patent approval.
Whether or not the bikinis will be sold or actually improve polluted bodies of water remains to be seen. The researchers however are hopeful that their wearable technology will take off and be used to better the environment.
Watch the video below to see the permeable Sponge in action.