Biodegradable Sponge from Sunflower Pollen

Using sunflower pollen, scientists have created a sponge that is environmentally friendly and highly absorbent through a recent collaboration between Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea.  Its ability to soak up oil and other organic substances could pave the way for cleaning marine oil spills and removing contaminants from water bodies when the production is scaled up. 

After more than six years, the sponge is the latest development in a series of studies exploring the potential applications of pollen. When not used for pollination, pollen has been treated as waste, according to the lead scientist of this study, Cho Nam-Joon from the NTU School of Material Science and Engineering.  Pollen is abundant so that a metric ton of sunflower pollen retails for as low as S$10, which makes pollen-made sponge a relatively low cost material. The scientists worked on sunflower pollen from China and Brazil.

Coated with stearic acid, a fatty acid commonly found in vegetable and animal fat, the sponge is hydrophobic and repels water.  This ensures the sponge absorbs oil and other contaminants effectively and will be less likely to take in water.  Oil-absorption tests, conducted with oils and organic solvents of varying densities, such as gasoline, pump oil, and n-hexane (a chemical found in crude oil), found the pollen sponge comparable to polypropylene absorbents which are currently used by companies to absorb corrosives or oil-based liquids.