Review: The adsorption of functional polymers from their organic solutions: Applications to fuel additives

Abstract

Functional polymers are used as additives in the formulation of fuels either for their detergency properties or for retaining cold weather operability. Examples of recent research work aimed at a better understanding of the physico-chemical phenomena involved and at the design and synthesis of new polymers are described. One phenomenon common in most applications is the adsorption of the polymers on various surfaces (gums, soot, metal walls, paraffin crystals). In the case of chain-end functional polymers, strong affinity of the functional groups for the surface sites is required in order to reach the high adsorption densities that allow optimum stabilization properties. This can be achieved by a correct choice of the functional group (of its polymeric nature, having a primary amino group that will strongly interact with surface sites) or by the design of the macromolecular architecture. In the case of very complex systems (eg the crystallization of paraffins in diesel fuel), the selection of relevant experimental models allows investigations into mechanisms at a microscopic level. Such studies would obviously not be possible on the diesel fuel itself, which is nevertheless the only really representative sample. © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry.