Fabrication of hierarchically topological sponges with ultrafast capillary uptake and robust wet-state mechanical resilience for efficient oil spill remediation.

Rapid and cost-effective cleanup of crude oil spills at sea poses a global challenge. Biomass aerogels with rich pore structures facilitate rapid mass diffusion, making them ideal candidates for separation processes in environmental remediation. However, the absence of structural support in cellulose pore walls undermines its instability, necessitating energy intensive recycling approaches, e.g., freeze-drying or high-temperature carbonization. Herein, we present a hierarchically structural built-in strategy that assembles pineapple leaves-derived nanofibers into larger pores of melamine sponges (MS) topological framework by ice template and ambient pressure drying. This strategy enables low-energy fabrication of hierarchical sponges exhibiting ultrafast capillary uptake (e.g. enhancing ‌oil wicking efficiency‌ by over 3-folds vs MS) and robust wet-state mechanical resilience (e.g. maintaining an ‌80.7% height retention rate‌ after 50 cycles at ∼60% strain in 1000 mPa·s silicone oil) as a scalable, energy-efficient, and field-deployable solution for high-viscosity oil spill response, where traditional sorbents fail due to slow sorption kinetics, poor wet resilience, or irreversible structural failure. Subsequently, the integrated photothermal-hierarchical design yields a remarkable ∼361.3% enhancement in crude oil (8300 mPa·s) diffusion rate vs MS. This kinetic acceleration enables rapid absorption saturation (25.5 g/g) of the materials within 20 s for crude oil, achieving a spill recovery rate of 112.3 g·h⁻¹ ·cm⁻²‌ using peristaltic pump system. This work provides a promising pathway for rapid emergency response to marine oil spills remediation.