The lotus plant is recognized as a ‘King plant’ among all the natural water repellent plants due to its excellent non-wettability. The superhydrophobic surfaces exhibiting the famous ‘Lotus Effect’, along with extremely high water contact angle (>150°) and low sliding angle (<10°), have been broadly investigated and extensively applied on variety of substrates for potential self-cleaning and anti-corrosive applications. Since 1997, especially after the exploration of the surface micro/nanostructure and chemical composition of the lotus leaves by the two German botanists Barthlott and Neinhuis, many kinds of superhydrophobic surfaces mimicking the lotus leaf-like structure have been widely reported in the literature. This review article briefly describes the different wetting properties of the natural superhydrophobic lotus leaves and also provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art discussion on the extensive research carried out in the field of artificial superhydrophobic surfaces which are developed by mimicking the lotus leaf-like dual scale micro/nanostructure. This review article could be beneficial for both novice researchers in this area as well as the scientists who are currently working on non-wettable, superhydrophobic surfaces.

Since the report of the Honda–Fujishima effect, heterogeneous photocatalysis has attracted much attention around the world because of its potential energy and environmental applications. Although great progresses have been made in recent years, most were focused on preparing highly-active photocatalysts and investigating visible light utilization. In fact, we are still unclear on the thermodynamic and kinetic nature of photocatalysis to date, which sometimes leads to misunderstandings for experimental results. It is timely to give a review and discussion on the thermodynamics and kinetics of photocatalysis, so as to direct future researches. However, there is an absence of a detailed review on this topic until now. In this article, we tried to review and discuss the thermodynamics and kinetics of photocatalysis. We explained the thermodynamic driving force of photocatalysis, and distinguished the functions of light and heat in photocatalysis. The Langmuir–Hinshelwood kinetic model, the ˙OH oxidation mechanism, and the direct–indirect (D–I) kinetic model were reviewed and compared. Some applications of the D–I model to study photocatalytic kinetics were also discussed. The electron transport mode and its importance in photocatalysis were investigated. Finally, the intrinsic relation between the kinetics and the thermodynamics of photocatalytic reactions was discussed.