Carboxylate-Terminated Double-Hydrophilic Block Copolymer Containing Fluorescent Groups: An Effective and Environmentally Friendly Inhibitor for Calcium Carbonate Scales

Abstract

Allyloxy polyethoxy ether (APEG) and succinic anhydride were used to prepare allyloxy polyethoxy carboxylate (APEL). 8-hydroxy-1,3,6-pyrene trisulfonic acid trisodium salt (PY) was reacted with allyl chloride to produce fluorescent monomer 8-allyloxy-1,3,6-pyrene trisulfonic acid trisodium salt (PA). APEL and PA were copolymerized with acrylic acid (AA) to synthesize PA tagged no phosphate and nitrogen free CaCO₃ inhibitor AA-APEL-PA. Structures of PA, APEG, APEL, and AA-APEL-PA were carried out by FT-IR and ¹H-NMR. The observation shows that the dosage of AA-APEL-PA plays an important role on CaCO₃ inhibition. The effect on formation of CaCO₃ was investigated with combination of scanning electronic microscopy and X-ray powder diffraction analysis. Relationship between AA-APEL-PA's fluorescent intensity and its dosage was studied. Correlation coefficient r of AA-APEL-PA's fluorescent intensity and its dosage is 0.9998. AA-APEL-PA can be used to accurately measure polymer consumption on line besides providing excellent CaCO₃ inhibition.

Keywords:

• Allyloxy polyethoxy ether
• calcium carbonate
• fluorescent-tagged
• no phosphate and nitrogen free
• scale inhibitor

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Prospective Joint Research Project of Jiangsu Province (BY2012196); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51077013); Special funds for Jiangsu Province Scientific and Technological Achievements Projects of China (BA2011086); Program for Training of 333 High-Level Talent, Jiangsu Province of China (BRA2010033); Scientific Innovation Research Foundation of College Graduate in Jiangsu Province (CXLX-0134); and The Scientific Research Foundation of Graduate of Southeast University (YBJJ1110).