MRI-RAPID: Acquisition of a Microscopic Contact Angle Meter for Rapid and Accurate Characterization of Spill Oil Retention Enhancement on Nanostructured Materials

这项快速反应研究（MRI-RAPID）主要研究仪器补助金将用于购买自动显微镜接触角仪（Kyowa MCA-3），用于评估墨西哥湾漏油事件中产生的油/水分散体中常见的小油滴的润湿行为。 这些润湿行为的定量表征对于评估天然芯吸材料的有效性和设计用于吸油和油/水分离的合成材料都是至关重要的。该设备是高度专业化的，可产生直径低至20微米的油滴，并在润湿低表面积、非平面材料（如单个毛发或纤维）时测量其接触角。 测量速度足以获得准确的接触角，即使是对于具有高蒸汽压（蒸发速率）的液滴，如油。 这种能力的可用性将能够快速筛选潜在的油芯吸和分离材料，这些材料正在被考虑用于海湾石油泄漏，并且还将服务于对表面润湿和两相流体分离的基本理论的长期追求，许多材料，从动物毛发到棉花、玉米壳、羽毛和干草，已经被提议用于清扫海湾石油。 实验评估这些选项的时间和成本将是巨大的，使得基于基本表面相互作用的快速实验室规模评估成为潜在的关键资源。 该设备完全可以进行这种评价。

This Major Research Instrumentation Grant for Rapid Response Research (MRI-RAPID)award will be used to acquire an automatic microscopic contact angle meter (Kyowa MCA-3) for use in evaluating the wetting behaviors of small oil droplets of the kind typically found in the oil/water dispersions created in the Gulf oil spill. The quantitative characterization of these wetting behaviors is critical to both the evaluation of the effectiveness of natural wicking materials and the design of synthetic materials for both oil absorption and oil/water separation. The equipment is highly specialized to create oil droplets down to 20 microns in diameter and measure their contact angles when wetting low surface area, nonplanar materials, such as individual hairs or fibers. The speed of measurement is sufficient to obtain accurate contact angles even for droplets with high vapor pressures (evaporation rates), such as oil. The availability of such a capability will enable the rapid screening of potential oil wicking and separation materials that are being considered for use in the Gulf oil spill and will also serve the long term pursuit of a fundamental theory of surface wetting and two-phase fluid separation.Numerous materials, from animal hair to cotton, corn husks, feathers and hay have been proposed for mopping up Gulf oil. The time and cost of evaluating these options experimentally would be enormous, making a quick, laboratory scale evaluation based on fundamental surface interactions a potentially critical resource. The equipment may well enable such an evaluation.