Abstract:

An acrylic copolymer modified with surface active groups （HS-C） was studied. Its structural characteristics, polymer properties （chelation and anti-deposition） and surface activity （surface tension, critical micelle concentration, wettability, emulsification, foaming and detergency） were investigated. The performance of HS-C was compared with that of commonly used chelating agents, anti-redeposition agents and surfactants, respectively. The results of FT-IR showed that the main structure of HS-C was similar to that of unmodified sodium polyacrylate （PM）, but with more unsaturated bonds and alcohol and/or ether groups. The experimental results showed that the chelation value of HS-C was 554.70 mg/g, which was higher than that of EDTA·4Na and GLDA·4Na but slightly lower than that of PM. Its anti-deposition performance to carbon black was close to that of commercially available anti-redeposition agent SRP, whereas PM had no anti-deposition effect to carbon black. The critical micelle concentration and equilibrium surface tension of HS-C were 0.005% and 41.85 mN/m, respectively. Its wetting and foaming properties were relatively poorer than those of LAS, AEO-9 and AES, but its emulsifying ability was better than that of low-molecular-weight surfactants. HS-C had detergency superior to LAS, and there was synergistic effect when combined with LAS, AEO-9 and AES.

Key words: surface active polymer, chelation, anti-deposition, surface activity, modified acrylic copolymer