Superhydrophobic sponge-like materials are attracting more attention in recent years as potential sorbent materials for oil spill clean-up. In this work, the authors report the incorporation of hydrophobic structural features into a superhydrophilic pristine formaldehyde-melamine-sodium bisulfite copolymer sponge (FMSS) by N-acylation with a fatty acid derivative, for use as an oil sorbent in oil spill clean-ups. This resulted in our ability to transform the surface properties of the sponge skeleton to superhydrophobic with a contact angle of 143 degrees. The acylated FMSS (alpha-FMSS) was shown to retain the interconnected porous structure, and was characterized with microscopic and spectroscopic analyses. Sorption experiments with engine oil and chloroform showed that a-FMSS had a very high oil sorption capacity (amounting to 99 and 168.2 times its own weight respectively) than commercial nonwoven polypropylene sorbent. In this view, a-FMSS is considered to be a promising oil sorbent for potential applications in large-scale oil spill clean-ups. (C) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE