Prof. Joshua Jackman Developed a Pollen Sponge from Natural Materials

- Expecting replacement of plastics with eco-friendly materials using pollen and solution of water pollution

[Image 1] Oil absorption capacity of pollen sponge

Sungkyunkwan University announces that Prof. Joshua Jackman and Dr. Youngkyu Hwang in Department of Chemical Engineering along with Prof. Namjun Cho at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) developed a pollen sponge from natural materials including sunflower bee pollen, which can solve water pollution such as oil spills in the ocean.

Lately, as interest in the development of eco-friendly materials has increased due to the seriousness of environmental pollution, research using natural materials has been in the spotlight. Especially, pollen, as it is considered the “diamond of biopolymers”, it has outstanding structural properties such as chemical and mechanical stability. However, most of pollen is discarded except for the amount used for moisture.

Hence, the research team converted pollen into microgel particles based on a simple chemical process. 

By using pollen-based microgel particles, the team made a hydrophobic sponge and it exhibited that the sponge’s absorption capacity is 9.7 to 29.3g/g or more. The range is comparable to commercial polypropylene absorbents (8.1-24.6 g/g), and it has been found to be able to selectively absorbs pollutants such as organic solvents, gasoline, and motor oil.

[Image 2] Sponge made using pollen

The team said, “Pollen materials, which are produced in plants and mostly discarded, will one day replace widely used plastics and help curb the global problem of plastic pollution.”

[Image 3] Left-up pollen, Right-up pollen SEM images, Left-down pollen sponge, Right-down pollen sponge SEM images

The research team plans expand the size of sponge in order to meet the expectation of industries and to test it in actual environment in cooperation with non-governmental organization and international partners.

Prof. Joshua Jackman and Prof. Namjun Cho are the co-authors and Dr. Youngkyu Hwang is the first author of this study, and the result was published online in the Advanced Functional Materials (Impact Factor=16.836, JCR ranking Top 4%), a world-renowned journal on March 12 (Fri).

※ Title of paper: Colloid‐Mediated Fabrication of a 3D Pollen Sponge for Oil Remediation Applications
 ※ Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.202101091