UNS: Surfactant Herders for Containment and Remediation of Maritime Oil Spills

海上石油泄漏会对海洋生物和海岸造成严重危害。该项目的目标是开发可生物降解的表面活性剂，用于“化学聚集”，作为有效的溢油应对措施。在这种密封方法中，表面活性剂被空中喷洒到泄漏点外未受污染的水中。表面活性剂降低了空气-水表面张力，使浮油层缩回并增厚到可以通过燃烧或机械撇除的程度。研究人员将合成易于降解的表面活性剂牧人，并进行实验，以评估其在实验室模拟化学放牧中的性能。表面活性剂采用天然存在的具有独特的单碳支重复结构的萜类化合物作为疏水尾部，极性头基团与聚类作用后水解的酯基团相连。将测量牧民减少的空气/水表面张力。研究人员还将研究另一种策略，即使用表面活性剂降低油水界面张力，从而导致油层收缩。表面活性剂的聚集能力将在实验室实验中得到证明，并与目前使用的市售表面活性剂的性能进行比较。

CBET - 1512458PI: Maldarelli, CharlesMaritime oil spills can pose serious hazards to marine life and coastal shorelines. The goal of this project is to develop biodegradable surfactants for use in "chemical herding" as an effective oil spill response. In this method of containment, surfactants are sprayed aerially into uncontaminated water immediately outside the spill. The surfactants lower the air-water surface tension, which causes the floating oil layer to retract and thicken to the point that it can be removed by burning or mechanical skimming. The investigators will synthesize surfactant herders that are easily degraded and conduct experiments to evaluate their performance in laboratory simulations of chemical herding. Surfactants will be synthesized using naturally occurring terpenoids with a unique single carbon branch repeating structure as the hydrophobic tail and a polar head group attached with an ester group that hydrolyzes after the herding action. The air/water surface tension reduction by the herder will be measured. An alternative strategy in which the surfactant is used to lower the oil/water interfacial tension, leading to retraction of the oil layer, will also be investigated. The herding capabilities of the surfactants will be demonstrated in laboratory experiments and compared with the performance of commercially available surfactants currently in use.