ABSTRACT The discharge of oil spills and oily wastewater poses serious threats to the natural environment. Developing efficient, reusable, and multifunctional oil sorbents is therefore important for oil–water separation. In this study, polyurethane sponge was used as the substrate, and a magnetic, flame‐retardant, hydrophobic sponge with light‐assisted crude oil uptake was prepared by dip‐coating Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) with a PDMS/TEOS‐derived siloxane network.