---
title: "Scientists develop mesh that captures oil-but lets water through"
description: "Water passes through the mesh but oil doesn't, thanks to a nearly invisible oil-repelling coating on its surface."
date: "2015-04-15"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Kevin Woods"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kwoods"
url: "https://futurism.com/scientists-develop-mesh-that-captures-oil-but-lets-water-through"
categories:
  - "Future Materials"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "materials"
---

# Scientists develop mesh that captures oil-but lets water through

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/mesh.jpg>)

- In tests, researchers mixed water with oil and poured the mixture onto the mesh. The water filtered through the mesh to land in a beaker below. The oil collected on top of the mesh, and rolled off easily into a separate beaker when the mesh was tilted.
- The mesh coating is among a suite of nature-inspired nanotechnologies under development at Ohio State and described in two papers in the journal Scientific Reports. Potential applications range from cleaning oil spills to tracking oil deposits underground.
- Because the coating is only a few hundred nanometers (billionths of a meter) thick, it is mostly undetectable. To the touch, the coated mesh doesn't feel any bumpier than uncoated mesh. The coated mesh is a little less shiny, though, because the coating is only 70 percent transparent.