Sugar-Derived Phase-Selective Molecular Gelators as Model Solidifiers for Oil Spills

Mopping up: Phase‐selective gelators were synthesized from sugar alcohols using biocatalysis. The gelators exhibited an unprecedented ability to phase‐selectively gel only organic liquids including crude‐oil fractions in the presence of water at room temperature. Oil can be recovered from the gelled phase by heating and distillation. Thus this class of materials may be useful in recovering oil from spills.