fairfolio
Saved Projects

Polydimethylsiloxane-Coated Polysaccharide Hydrogels for Sustainable Oil Spill Remediation

ISEF · 2026 Materials Science

Srinivasan, Sanjay · Eastlake High School

Overview

Oil spills cause large-scale destruction of marine ecosystems and economies. Current remediation methods primarily rely on mechanical recovery, typically recovering only 2-6% of spilled oil. An emerging solution uses hydrogels coated with oleophilic materials, but current formulations use synthetic hydrogels and a toxic coating of octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS). This research investigates whether ecofriendly polysaccharide hydrogels coated with nontoxic oleophilic materials can achieve absorption characteristics comparable to conventional solutions. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was selected as a hydrophobic, oleophilic, and non-toxic coating material. Ten PDMS-polysaccharide hydrogel systems were designed and analyzed for selective oil absorption using molecular docking simulations and density functional theory. From these, three PDMS-hydrogel systems were selected for physical synthesis and experimental evaluation: pectin crosslinked with calcium ions, guar gum crosslinked with sodium tetrahydroxyborate, and agarose crosslinked with citric acid. 225 samples (75 per hydrogel) were tested across three oil viscosities. Scheirer-Ray-Hare tests revealed both oil type and hydrogel type were significant for absorption capacity. Dunn's post hoc comparisons confirmed absorption of high-viscosity oils (1.39–2.88 g/g) differed significantly from those of lower-viscosity oils. Absorption capacity was positively correlated with viscosity (Rsquare=0.57), while water uptake remained negligibly low (0.027–0.079 g/g) across all hydrogels. These absorption capacities are comparable to existing OTS-hydrogels, while eliminating toxic materials. This offers a sustainable remediation approach that surpasses mechanical recovery methods and enhances oil reusability due to minimal water uptake.

Awards (1)

  • Fourth Award of $600 $600

Competition history

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google