This study has demonstrated, for the first time, the potential application of coatings to protect bricks or architectures against detrimental atmospheric effects via a self-cleaning approach. In this research, a facile fabrication method was developed to produce amorphous SiO2 particles and their hierarchical structures via applying trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS). They were fully characterized by various surface analytic tools, including a goniometer, SEM, AFM, zeta sizer, and a spectroscopic technique (FTIR), and then applied as super hydrophobic coatings on glass and sand. The characterization results revealed that the SiO2 particles are amorphous, quasi-spherical particles with an average diameter of 250–300 nm, and the hierarchical structures in the film were assembled from building blocks of SiO2 and TMCS. The wettability of the films can be controlled by changing the pH of the SiO2/TCMS dispersion. A super hydrophobic surface with a water contact angle of 165° ± 1° was achieved at the isoelectric point of the films. The obtained translucent super hydrophobic SiO2/TMCS coatings show good self-cleaning performances for glass and sand as construction materials. This study indicated that the superhydrophobic coatings may have potential applications in the protection of buildings and construction architectures in the future.
In this paper, it was successfully established a novel and cheap water-proofing technique for protecting concrete from further damage caused by water leakage. This technique originated from the proper design and rational formulation of the materials including hydrophobic sand, silicon oil, tyre crumb rubber, and recycled motor oil. From this research, it can be seen that only one concrete showed hydrophobicity and all obtained concrete demonstrated significantly and in some cases extremely low water permeability relative to control concrete. To the best of current knowledge, this is the first paper, which studied the surface and water sorption properties of concrete modified by the addition of hydrophobic sand obtained by patented technology. The goniometer investigated the surface properties of the modified concrete. The results obtained including density, contact angle, change of weight, and maximum load capacity under high electro-hydraulic pressure were compared and discussed.
In this study we proposed exploring how chemical reactions of amphiphile compounds can be characterized and followed-up on model interfaces. A custom-made surfactant containing three alkyne sites was first adsorbed...
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