Annually in the world about a half million diepeople due to lack of clean water, suitable for consumption. This is due to the fact that more than 80% of all water resources are spent on watering the soil in desert regions of our planet. Scientists from the company, engaged in the development of hydrophobic materials, invented a coating for sand, to reduce its need for water and irrigation. African countries, as well as the Middle East, suffer most from lack of fresh drinking water, which is why the United Arab Emirates, with the support of German specialists, invented hydrophobic sand.
Эти два взаимосвязанных понятия применимы к любым substances and materials. They are responsible for how easily or not they come into contact with water. On materials with a hydrophilic surface, the drop of water spreads completely and is absorbed. Such bodies include carbonates, silicates, sulfates, clays and silicate glasses. The hydrophobic surface repels a drop of water and prevents it from penetrating inside. All metals, paraffins, fats, waxes and some types of plastics possess this property. Hydrophobicity is a low degree of hydrophilicity. In textile production, the fabrics are subjected to hydrophilization, so that they are better suited to staining, and their hydrophobization contributes to imparting waterproofness.
Even without delving deeply into the physics of substances, it is understandable,that the sand perfectly passes and absorbs water. But thanks to modern nanotechnology, scientists work miracles, changing the original properties of materials. To get hydrophobic sand, they had to treat each grain of sand with a special solution, the secrets of which are not disclosed. Such sand retains its properties for 30 years. So far, these events are at the level of experiments, but the company is ready to work in industrial volumes. To process one grain of sand, it takes about 40 seconds, but producers have the resources to produce hydrophobic sand daily at 3000 tons.
Scientists suggest using hydrophobic sandas a waterproof separation layer between the fertile soil in which the plants are grown and all other sequences of soils. This layer will reduce the number of waterings per day from 5 times to one, because the water will not go to depth, but feed the roots. Scientists even decided on a bold experiment to grow rice in arid areas, but no concrete results yet.
Sand with hydrophobic properties will perfectly find its application in the construction of foundations, in particular in regions with high groundwater levels.
In order to put a handful of sand into the water, andthen remove it from there dry, you need to pre-process, usually with the help of silicone polymers. Most curious minds are haunted by the question: is it possible to make hydrophobic sand at home? Of course, it is possible, but not so high-quality and preserving its properties for a long time. There is one way that some people show the public as a focal point. It is necessary to place clean sand in a hot oven, give it a good warm-up and dry there. Then get it and treat with water-repellent sprays for clothes. Any such store can be purchased at any sports equipment store. After these manipulations, you can repeatedly put and get the sand from the tank with water completely dry.
