NEW DELHI: IIT Delhi may have found a solution to the menace of oil spilling. A team of researchers at the institute have developed a hydrophobic material that can separate oil from water and help in extracting the oil out. The material developed by IIT in the past few months attaches to the oil molecules and turns it magnetic; easy enough for the oil to be removed by a magnet.According to IIT Delhi due to a rapid increase in use and transport of oils over the years, oil spillage and leakage accidents are occurring frequently worldwide.The pollution by oil leaks contains many hazardous molecules including aromatic hydrocarbons and cyclo-paraffins, hence the removal of oil spilled over water and has become an important issue for protecting the environment.To deal with this pollution with oil leaks, IIT Delhi researchers Neeraj Khare and Sandeep Munjal have come out with an invention “that relates to a novel reusable and stable super-hydrophobic (repelling water) and super-oleophilic (affinity to oil) carbon based nanocomposite for efficient separation of oils from oil-water mixture.Khare, speaking to TOI explained that the carbon fibre based nanocomposite developed by IIT-Delhi has low density porous structure and has been synthesized in natural cotton with embedded magnetic nanoparticles.“Because of that it quickly absorbs oil but does not absorb water. When introduced in the oil spillage on water, the product absorbs oil drops instantaneously. And since it is magnetic in nature the nanocomposite material can be used to remove oil from the oil-water mixture making very efficient to remove oil spilled over the water surface on a large area,” Khare said.He added that since the nanocomposite is synthesised from cotton, it is porous and spongy nature, “so the soaked oil can be extracted from it by just squeezing it and it can be reused.”He further added that the nanocomposite is so effective that one گرام of it can attract 90 grams oil.Khare stated that in the last few years, there have occurred many large oil spill incidents throughout the world, including Montara oil spill of Australia, Deep water horizon at the Gulf of Mexico and the Xingang Port oil spill were the most alarming.“The marine atmosphere is the most affected due to such incidents, and the spill may have impact on marine life in many ways and kill the fishes. Oil spilled over water floats like a mat on the water’s surface with the thick sludge, which reduce oxygen levels in the water and prevents the penetration of sunlight into the water.” Due to all these challenges and issues, the removal of oil spilled over water and other organic chemical leakage in water has become an important issue "and our invention of carbon based nanocomposite can provide effective solution to this problem,” the researcher who has been working on the invention for several months, claimed.He informed that a major oil spill that took place in Chennai on January 28, 2017, and it took weeks to remove the sludge that spread along the coastline. “If our nanocomposite was available back then, the impact of the oil spillage would ahvr been minimal as we could have used large quantities of it to to absorb the oil instantaneously," he claimed.IIT-Delhi has already patented the product with the government of Indian and will be approaching the government and members of the industry to acquire their invention and utilize them.