Superhydrophobic Sands for the Preservation and Purification of Water

Sand, a cheap and naturally abundant particulate material, was modified with photocatalytic and hydrophobic coatings to reduce evaporation loss and facilitate the purification of water. The first-level photocatalytic coatings (TiO2 or ZnO nanocrystals) rendered nanoscale roughness on the surface of the sand. The additional second-level hydrophobic coating of a self-assembled monolayer of octyltrimethoxysilane (OTS) made the sand particles superhydrophobic because of the nanoscale roughness imposed by the nanocrystals. The superhydrophobic sand particles, floating on the free surface of water due to their superhydrophobicity, significantly reduced the evaporation loss of water by 60%–90% in comparison to an uncovered water surface. When the outer hydrophobic coatings are weathered or disengaged, the inner photocatalytic coatings become exposed to water. Then, the sand particles act as photocatalysts to degrade the contaminants in water under solar radiation.