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Oil spills are a frequent perturbation to the marine environment that has rapid and significant impacts on the local microbiome. Previous studies have shown that exposure to synthetic dispersant alone did not enhance heterotrophic microbial activity or oxidation rates of specific hydrocarbon components but increased the abundance of some taxa (e.g., Colwellia). In contrast, exposure to oil, but not dispersants, increased the abundance of other taxa (e.g., Marinobacter) and stimulated hydrocarbon oxidation rates. Here, we advance these findings by interpreting metatranscriptomic data from this experiment to explore how and why specific components of the microbial community responded to distinct organic carbon exposure regimes. Dispersant alone was selected for a unique community and for dominant organisms that reflected treatment- and time-dependent responses. Dispersant amendment also led to diverging functional profiles among the different treatments. Similarly, oil alone was selected for a community that was distinct from treatments amended with dispersants. The presence of oil and dispersants with added nutrients led to substantial differences in microbial responses, likely suggesting increased fitness driven by the presence of additional inorganic nutrients. The oil-only additions led to a marked increase in the expression of phages, prophages, transposable elements, and plasmids (PPTEPs), suggesting that aspects of microbial community response to oil are driven by the mobilome, potentially through viral-associated regulation of metabolic pathways in ciliates and flagellates that would otherwise throttle the microbial community through grazing.IMPORTANCEMicrocosm experiments simulated the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill by applying oil and synthetic dispersants (Corexit EC9500A and EC9527A) to deep ocean water samples. The exposure regime revealed severe negative alterations in the treatments heterotrophic microbial activity and hydrocarbon oxidation rates. We expanded these findings by exploring metatranscriptomic signatures of the microbial communities during the chemical amendments in the microcosm experiments. Here we report how dominant organisms were uniquely associated with treatment- and time-dependent trajectories during the exposure regimes; nutrient availability was a significant factor in driving changes in metatranscriptomic responses. Remarkable signals associated with PPTEPs showed the potential role of mobilome and viral-associated survival responses. These insights underscore the time-dependent environmental perturbations of fragile marine environments under oil and anthropogenic stress.

Sonochemical decomposition effects of nickelocene, which sublimates easily were investigated to synthesize dispersant-free nickel fine particles at low temperature. In a hydrazine monohydrate and 2-propanol mixed solvent, the reduction of nickelocene was promoted by ultrasound irradiation, and nickel fine particles were synthesized while precluding the sublimation of nickelocene. Unlike the common hydrazine reduction of nickel salts, which requires multiple-step reactions, nickelocene was reduced directly without forming intermediates. The effect of the water-bath temperature (20–60 °C) was investigated, where larger fine particles were synthesized using a higher water-bath temperature (60 °C). When irradiated at 20 °C, the reduction rate of nickelocene was low, leading to the formation of nickel fine particles and organic nanoparticles via the reduction and decomposition of nickelocene. The ultrasound frequency was also investigated, where fine nickel particles were synthesized using low-frequency ultrasound irradiation. The formation of high-temperature hotspots led to the diffusion and growth of nickel on the surface of the nickel fine particles; therefore, raspberry-like nickel fine particles were synthesized. In this study, the difficult-to-handle nature of nickelocene, owing to its sublimation properties, was easily overcome by ultrasound irradiation. Instantaneous and localized reactions at hotspots contributed to inhibiting particle growth. Furthermore, Ni fine particles were synthesized via a direct reduction pathway, which differs from previous reactions. This method represents a new, dispersant-free, low-temperature process for synthesizing Ni fine particles.

A large amount of pulverized coal is easy to be produced in the process of hydraulic fracturing of coalbed methane reservoir. The accumulation and settlement of pulverized coal will cause serious blockage to the fractures formed by fracturing, and reduce the permeability and conductivity of fractures and affect the effect of fracturing stimulation of coalbed methane wells. Therefore, a new type of coal powder dispersant MFFS-2 was developed through a large number of laboratory experiments and combined with the reservoir characteristics of the target CBM block, and its comprehensive performance was evaluated. The experimental results show that when the mass concentration of MFFS-2 reaches 0.3%, the surface tension of water solution can be reduced to less than 25 mN/m, and the contact angle of coal surface can be reduced from 115.3° to less than 60° with good surface activity and wettability; when the suspension of coal powder is standing for 10 hours, the suspension rate of coal powder can reach more than 30% with the addition of 0.3% MFFS-2. When 0.3% MFFS-2 solution is used to displace for 2 hours, the yield of pulverized coal can reach more than 60%, which indicates that MFFS-2 has good suspension dispersion and carrying effect on pulverized coal; in addition, the damage rate of MFFS-2 to the matrix permeability of block coal core in the target area is less than 10%, and the damage degree of fracturing fluid system to the permeability of coal core is reduced after adding MFFS-2 into the active hydraulic fracturing fluid. The field fracturing operation results of coalbed methane well show that the fracturing operation of S-1 well is smooth after adding new coal powder dispersant MFFS-2, a large amount of coal powder is carried out in the backflow fluid, and the gas production is high, which achieves the expected fracturing effect. Moreover, the construction effect of the new active hydraulic fracturing fluid in the same block is significantly better than that of the conventional active hydraulic fracturing fluid.

Coal water slurry (CWS) has been considered a cleaner and sustainable alternative to coal. However, the challenging suspension of coal particles in CWS has created a major obstacle to its use in industry. This study presents a novel approach to enhance the stability and rheological properties of coal water slurry (CWS) through the utilization of carboxyalkylated lignin (CL) as a dispersant. The generated CL samples had high water solubility of around 9 g/L and a charge density of around 2 mmol/g. All CLs were able to stabilize the coal suspension, and their performance decreased due to the increase in the alkyl chain length of carboxyalkylated lignin. Carboxymethylated lignin (CL-1) improved the stability of the coal suspensions with the lowest instability index of less than 0.6. The addition of CLs reduced the contact angle of the coal surface from 45.3° to 34.6°, and the increase in the alkyl chain length hampered its effect on contact angle changes. The zeta potential measurements confirmed that the adsorption of CL enhanced the electrostatic repulsion between coal particles in suspensions, and the zeta potential decreased with the increased alkyl chain length of CLs due to increased steric hindrance. The rheology results indicated that CLs demonstrated shear thinning behavior. This innovative method showcases the affinity of carboxyalkylated lignin to improve the performance of CWS, offering an environmentally friendly alternative for producing a cleaner product, i.e., sustainable coal water slurry, with improved suspension stability.

This work presents the study of the rheology ical behavior of Algerian kaolin (DD1) suspensions considering two types of electro-steric dispersants (Hypermer KD1 and Darvan 7) and the evaluation of their effectiveness at neutral pH. The results showed that Darvan 7 exhibits electro-steric behavior at neutral pH, whereas KD1 exhibits purely steric behavior. The addition of a dispersant strongly influenced the rheological behavior of kaolin suspensions. The DD1 suspensions without dispersant exhibited fluidifying plastic behavior (Casson model). The shear stresses decreased significantly with the addition of dispersant, while the significant decrease in viscosity indicated that the dispersant reduced the strength of the particle networks that make up the slurry. The suspensions with 1 wt.% dispersant were consistent with the Bingham model, with a very low yield point. The viscosity of the dispersion reached a minimum when the concentration of the dispersant was 1 wt.%. This value was lower with Darvan 7. The addition of aluminum slag as a source of alumina to KD1 increased its efficiency and lowered the viscosity of the kaolin suspensions.

Abstract Ionic liquid (IL) as the dispersant can help disperse the organic nanofillers to improve the performance of epoxy resin remarkably. However, the effect of IL on the electrical properties of epoxy composites is not well documented. This comprehensive study consists of the preparation, material characterisation and systematical investigation of electrical properties of 1‐Butyl‐3‐methylimidazole hexafluorophosphate‐modified chitin fibre/epoxy composites. The findings show that introducing IL into a chitin/epoxy composite can minimise porosity defects and improve the compatibility between filler and matrix. However, a high concentration of IL induces severe charge injection into chitin/epoxy composites and internal electric field distortion. The addition of 0.75%–1.5% mass fraction IL results in maximum enhancement in the AC breakdown strength of the chitin/epoxy composite (by ∼71%) compared with the non‐IL composites. The non‐linear conductivity and non‐uniform charge injection phenomena of IL‐modified composites can be attributed to the movement of radicals and anions due to the decomposition of IL. Through this study, it is highly expected that the organic filler dispersion in the epoxy matrix can be optimised by tuning IL to improve the insulation properties.

In this paper, N-vinylpyrrolidone was copolymerized with acrylic acid and itaconic acid by free radical polymerization, and a series of polyacrylic acid-co-itaconic acid-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone (PAIN) dispersants with different pyrrolidone ligand contents were synthesized and characterized. Then, the cobalt blue nano-pigment slurry (20 wt%) was prepared through a water-based grinding method, and the optimum grinding technology was explored and determined as follows: PAIN2 as a dispersant, a dispersant dosage of 10 wt%, and a grinding time of 480 min. According to this optimum grinding technology, the prepared pigment slurry had a significantly decreased agglomeration, the D90 of which was 82 nm, and separately increased to 130 nm and 150 nm after heat storage for 3 and 7 days, exhibiting excellent heat storage stability. Additionally, its TSI value was also the lowest (1.9%), indicating good dispersion stability. The QCM and adorption capacity measuring results showed PAIN2 had a larger adsorption capacity, and the formed adsorption layer had a higher rigidity and was not easy to fall off. This was caused by both the interaction of carboxyl groups and the pyrrolidone ligand (strong coordination interaction) in PAIN2 with cobalt blue. The XPS and FT–IR measurements further proved the above-mentioned adsorption mechanism.

\nHIGHLIGHTSShenhua Nonstick Coal (SNC) has a relatively shallow degree of metamorphism and faces challenges in forming coal-water slurry. In this study, sodium lignosulfonate (SLS), sulfonated acetone-formaldehyde condensate (SAF), and naphthalene sulfonate-formaldehyde condensate (NSF) were selected for slurry formation experiments with SNC to explore the match between the addition of single dispersant and compound dispersant with Shenhua coal. The experimental results showed that NSF had the highest slurry formation concentration and the best adsorption performance when a single dispersant was added, while SLS showed better rheology and stability, and better wetting performance. With the addition of the compound dispersant NSF: SLS of 9:1 and 0.8 wt.%, the coal water slurry concentration was as high as 61.95% under its synergistic effect, and its stability and wettability were stronger. The interaction relationship between the two dispersants produced a larger absolute value of ζ potential and stronger electrostatic repulsion, which matched Shenhua coal with the dispersant better and formed a more stable slurry structure. Study the compatibility of Shenhua nonstick coal with these three dispersants individually and in combination to produce highly concentrated and highly stable CWS.Investigate the slurry properties with the addition of individual dispersants and compounded dispersants.Analyze the mechanism of dispersant coal interaction in the slurry formation process from a microscopic point of view in the context of slurry properties.Study the compatibility of Shenhua nonstick coal with these three dispersants individually and in combination to produce highly concentrated and highly stable CWS.Investigate the slurry properties with the addition of individual dispersants and compounded dispersants.Analyze the mechanism of dispersant coal interaction in the slurry formation process from a microscopic point of view in the context of slurry properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal water slurry (CWS) has been considered a cleaner and sustainable alternative to coal. However, the challenging suspension of coal particles in CWS has created a major obstacle to its use in industry. This study presents a novel approach to enhance the stability and rheological properties of coal water slurry (CWS) through the utilization of carboxyalkylated lignin (CL) as a dispersant. The generated CL samples had high water solubility of around 9 g/L and a charge density of around 2 mmol/g. All CLs were able to stabilize the coal suspension, and their performance decreased due to the increase in the alkyl chain length of carboxyalkylated lignin. Carboxymethylated lignin (CL-1) improved the stability of the coal suspensions with the lowest instability index of less than 0.6. The addition of CLs reduced the contact angle of the coal surface from 45.3° to 34.6°, and the increase in the alkyl chain length hampered its effect on contact angle changes. The zeta potential measurements confirmed that the adsorption of CL enhanced the electrostatic repulsion between coal particles in suspensions, and the zeta potential decreased with the increased alkyl chain length of CLs due to increased steric hindrance. The rheology results indicated that CLs demonstrated shear thinning behavior. This innovative method showcases the affinity of carboxyalkylated lignin to improve the performance of CWS, offering an environmentally friendly alternative for producing a cleaner product, i.e., sustainable coal water slurry, with improved suspension stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]