Double‐hydrophilic polyether antiscalant used as a crystal growth modifier of calcium scales in cooling‐water systems

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this study, we synthesized a novel double‐hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)‐based crystal growth modifier polyethylene glycol double‐ester of maleic anhydride/ acrylic acid named PEGDMA/AA, whose structure was still linear but also had some differences from a traditional chelating linear polymer, in which the PEG segment was incorporated. The scale inhibition behavior of PEGDMA/AA was evaluated by means of a static scale inhibition method. As the polymerization degree of PEG n DMA was 8 ( n = 8), the maximum inhibitory toward calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) and calcium sulfate (CaSO 4 ) were 89.0 and 98.8% at dosage levels of 12 and 3 mg/L, respectively. Comparisons with other inhibitors were also carried out. Characterization of the CaCO 3 and CaSO 4 scales with scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy proved that great changes in the size and morphology of the calcium scales took place under the influence of PEG 8 DMA/AA. X‐ray diffraction and diffraction patterns further confirmed the impact of PEG 8 DMA/AA as a crystal growth modifier. The three supposed mechanisms, (1) chelating solubilization, (2) multilayer type of adsorption, and (3) electrostatic repulsion function, are also described in detail. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131 , 39792.