A botanical polysaccharide extracted from abandoned corn stalks: Modification and evaluation of its scale inhibition and dispersion performance

A botanical hetero-polysaccharide sulfonated salt was prepared with hetero-polysaccharide extracted from abandoned corn stalks and cheap starting materials such as epichlorohydrin, and sodium bisulfite commercially available. The structures were characterized by FT-IR and 1H-NMR. Then, the novel sulfonated botanical hetero-polysaccharide derivative (PS-NAEP) was employed as an anti-scaling and dispersing agent. Its scale inhibition performance was evaluated by static test against calcium sulfate and calcium phosphate scaling while the dispersity test was performed for ferric oxide. The impact factors of scale inhibition performance such as agent concentration, pH value, total hardness and temperature, were investigated. The experimental results demonstrated that scale inhibition efficiency of PS-NAEP was close to 95% top against calcium sulfate and 55% against calcium phosphate in the simulation experiment. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X ray diffraction (XRD) analysis were also utilized to characterize morphology and crystal form of calcium sulfate and calcium phosphate scale. It appears that the higher scale inhibition efficiency and the worse distortion of the crystal form of calcium sulfate and calcium phosphate are all due to PS-NAEP. Moreover, special dispersion to ferric oxide was studied through observation of light transmittance of the dispersing solution, which suggested PS-NAEP was an effective dispersant.