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

这项用于快速反应研究的重大研究仪器补助金(MRI-RAPID)将用于获得一台自动显微接触角仪(Kyowa MCA-3)，用于评估小油滴的润湿行为，这种小油滴通常出现在墨西哥湾漏油造成的油/水分散中。这些润湿行为的定量表征对于评估天然吸油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，可以产生直径小至20微米的油滴，并在润湿小表面积、非平面材料时测量它们的接触角，例如单独的头发或纤维。测量速度足以获得准确的接触角，即使对于具有高蒸汽压(蒸发率)的液滴，如油。这种能力的可获得性将使人们能够快速筛选正在考虑用于墨西哥湾漏油的潜在油芯和分离材料，并将有助于长期追求表面润湿和两相流体分离的基本理论。从动物毛到棉花、玉米壳、羽毛和干草等大量材料已被提议用于清除墨西哥湾的石油。在实验上评估这些选项的时间和成本将是巨大的，这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。设备可以很好地实现这样的评估。

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.