Thick clouds of smoke clog the sky, and oily liquids called polychlorinated biphenyls spray into the air and leak onto the pavement. (bookbrowse.com)
After the coating, the new MIT material repels even oily liquids with low surface tension, such as pentane. (newscientist.com)
In a paper published this week in Nature Materials, researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill show that magnetic nanoparticles encased in oily liquid shells can bind together in water, much like sand particles mixed with the right amount of water can form sandcastles. (news.ncsu.edu)