Acrylic Acid-Allylpolyethoxy Carboxylate Copolymer: An Effective and Environmentally Friendly Inhibitor for Carbonate and Sulphate Scales in Cooling Water Systems.

Formation of mineral scales of carbonate and sulphate poses significant problems in cooling water systems. For the control of calcium carbonate and calcium sulphate scales, a novel environmentally friendly type of scale inhibitor ALn was synthesized. The antiscale property of the ALn copolymer towards CaCO3and CaSO4in the artificial cooling water was studied through static scale inhibition tests, The observation shows that both CaCO3and CaSO4inhibition increase with increasing the degree of polymerization of ALn from 5 to 15, andthe dosage of ALn plays an important role on CaCO3and CaSO4inhibition. The effect on formation of CaCO3and CaSO4was investigated with combination of scanning electronic microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray powder diffraction analysis, respectively. Inhibition mechanism is proposed that the interactions between calcium and polyethylene glycol are the fundamental impetus to restrain the formation of the scale in cooling water systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]