Airborne dust consists of fine solid particles ranging in size up to 100 µm, which can suspend in the air. Smaller particle sizes have a greater probability of penetrating deep into the pulmonary alveoli, increasing rates of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in affected communities. Airborne dust is widely monitored in terms of particulate matter (PM); PM<sub>10</sub> is the concentration of particles less than 10 µm in diameter and PM<sub>2.5</sub> is for particles less than 2.5 µm in diameter. Watering is commonly used to reduce fine dust emission from the ground by raising the moisture content of dust, attracting particles through the capillary force of water. Current environmental regulations emphasize the development of improved dust control methods to reduce hazardous PM in local communities. A variety of dust suppressants, including deliquescent salts, petroleum-based binders, and synthetic polymers, are utilized to attract moisture or form a rigid protection layer to improve water-based dust control methods. However, these suppressants suffer from short-term effectiveness, accelerating corrosion to machinery, and toxicity increase concerns to human health and the environment. Biocompatible liquid polymers were investigated to overcome these challenges associated with the usage of conventional dust suppressants. Those polymers have hydrophilic or amphiphilic natures and are non-toxic, as demonstrated by their application to food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. Liquid polymers have the ability to enhance the wetting state of dust compared to water. Moreover, we observed that the amphiphilic liquid polymer exhibited better effectiveness for airborne dust suppression than the hydrophilic polymer. ATR-FTIR and SEM analysis revealed that the amphiphilic polymer physically interacts with dust particles, responsible for the observed improvements in dust suppression. Based on the observed polymer-dust particle interactions, we investigated more biocompatible polymers with similar side chain groups to develop polymer mixtures that exhibit better effectiveness in dust suppression. The polymer mixture demonstrated much less amounts of dust emission at less total polymer concentrations than the formulations prepared with single polymers. This research proceeds to the interpretation of the higher performance by extensive physicochemical analysis, and investigates the effectiveness of polymer mixtures on various type of dust particles.

Liquid amphiphilic polymer for enhanced airborne dust suppression

2019 Spring National Meeting

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