High mechanical strength superhydrophobic colored sand prepared by a low-temperature strategy

The desert aeolian sand is one of the most abundant resources worldwide, and the utilization of sand with superhydrophobic function has become a heated research field. However, same as other superhydrophobic materials, the abrasion of the surface will lead to the loss of hydrophobic performance. Therefore, we prepared high-performance and mechanically stable superhydrophobic colored sand with a maximum water contact angle of 155° by low-temperature layered chaining technique (80 °C). The technical property of the co-existence of superhydrophobicity and mechanical stability was achieved on the surface of our high mechanical strength superhydrophobic colored sand. The interaction between the grafted particles and water molecules was revealed by molecular adsorption dynamics simulation to investigate the factors that affect hydrophobicity performance. The prepared superhydrophobic colored sand presented stable superhydrophobic performance after 40 min continuous abrasion tests. Moreover, the superhydrophobic sand had excellent chemical stability and liquid impact resistance with the composition stability under 240 °C. This work presents an environment-friendly, and resource-utilization surface modification method on inert materials like sand under a low-temperature condition. It provides framework surfaces like road ground and architectures with high mechanical strength and functional "layer" through a long-term performance and stable method.