Reduction of Water Evaporation from Dam Reservoirs Using Hydrophobic Silver‐Doped Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles Coating

Abstract Evaporation is the natural process of vaporization of water from reservoirs, which exacerbates water scarcity. The authors aimed to provide a hydrophobic silver‐doped titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanoparticles coating to reduce the amount of water evaporation behind the dams. Accordingly, the silver‐doped TiO 2 nanoparticles were first hydrophobized using stearic acid (SA). The produced material’s properties were identified under various analyses such as contact angle, X‐ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET), energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR), Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), and total organic carbon (TOC). The results of the analyses indicated that the synthesized material was sufficiently hydrophobic. Then, the level of evaporated water was measured in three modes of uncoated water surface, water surface coated with hydrophobic silver‐doped TiO 2 nanoparticles, and water coated with hexadecanol (as reference coating) under both experimental and environmental conditions. Comparison of the obtained results demonstrated that the water surface coated with hydrophobic silver‐doped TiO 2 nanoparticles and water coated with hexadecanol reduced evaporation by 39% and 29% in experimental, and 30% and 23% in the environmental conditions, respectively. Additionally, the antibacterial and photocatalytic properties of these nanoparticles helped to improve the quality of water stored in the tank and create less water pollution.