Improvement in the dispersion stability of iron oxide (magnetite, Fe3O4) particles with polymer dispersant injection

Abstract

The iron oxide (Fe3O4) particles in the coolant of the secondary system of a nuclear power plant reduce the heat transfer performance or induce corrosion on the surface of the heat transfer tube. To prevent these problems, we conducted a study to improve the dispersion stability of iron oxide using polymeric dispersant injection in simulated secondary system water. The three kinds of anionic polymers containing carboxyl groups were selected. The dispersion characteristics of the iron oxide particles with the polymeric dispersants were evaluated by performing a settling test and measuring the transmission, the zeta potential, and the hydrodynamic particle size of the colloid solutions. Polymeric dispersants had a significant impact on the iron oxide dispersion stability in an aqueous solution. While the dispersant injection tended to improve the dispersion stability, the dispersion stability of iron oxide did not increase linearly with an increase in the dispersant concentration. This non-linearity is due to the agglomerations between the iron oxide particles above a critical dispersant concentration. The effect of the dispersant on the dispersion stability improvement was significant when the dispersant concentration ratio (ppm, dispersant/ magnetite) was in the range of 0.1 to 0.01. This suggests that the optimization of dispersant concentration is required to maximize the iron oxide removal effect with the dispersant injection considering the applied environments, the iron oxide concentration and the concentration ratio of dispersant to iron oxide.