Superhydrophobic nanomaterials are promising in the important pursuit to alleviate the\nenvironmental pollution caused by the petroleum crude oil industry, especially to clean-up oil spills.\nIn this work, asphaltenes isolated from crude oil were modified to act as capping agents during the\nsynthesis of hydrophobic silica nanoparticles (HSNPs). The chemical structure, surface morphology,\nparticle size, and surfaces charge of HSNPs were investigated. The contact angles of water droplets on\nHSNP film surfaces were measured to investigate their wetting properties. Finally, superhydrophobic\nsand and polyurethane sponge were prepared by coating them with HSNPs and applied in the\ncleanup of oil spills of viscous heavy Arabian crude oil.
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