Preparation and water retention properties of clay-based sand-fixing and grass-planting materials

Targeting the problem of available water conservation in sand fixation, the sand-fixing and grass-planting materials were prepared with clay modified by emulsifying vegetable waxes and octylphenol polyoxyethylene ether (OP4). The water retention property was studied in simulating desertification environmental climate and the materials were characterized by means of UV-Vis, SEM, FTIR, XRD and TGA measurements. The experimental result showed that the materials had excellent water retention properties, due to that vegetable waxes adhered evenly to clay particle surfaces, made the clay pores changing from hydrophilic to hydrophobic and so inhibited the water evaporation. Grass-planting experiment showed that, with reasonable mass ratio of clay, vegetable waxes and surfactant, the materials not only inhibited water evaporation but also maintained sound air permeability so shat the germination rate and survival rate of grass were significantly improved.