Effects of surfactant adsorption on the surface functional group contents and polymerization properties of coal dust

Abstract

In order to better explain the wetting and polymerization mechanism between surfactant and coal dust, the effects of surfactant adsorption on the surface physicochemical properties of coal dust were investigated based on the infrared spectroscopy, zeta and dust control efficiency experiments. The results showed that compared with nonionic surfactant, anionic surfactant was more easily adsorbed on coal dust surface, while the combination of anionic-nonionic surfactants made surfactant molecules more easily adsorbed on the surface of coal dust, especially compound surfactant (B+D). With the surfactant adsorption increased, the hydrophobic functional group content and absolute potential value of coal dust decreased. For example, the surface potential and hydrophilic functional group content of coal dust adsorbing the compound surfactant (B+D) was enhanced by 43.92%, 165.7% than that of single surfactant (B). Additionally, it was verified that surfactant adsorption capacity could not be used as a critical factor to optimize surfactants applied to enhance the solution wettability. In field tests, the developed compound surfactant (B+D) enhanced respirable dust and total dust control efficiencies by 41.86% and 40.16%, respectively, compared to that of water spray. This study was conducive to choose surfactants to improve coal dust control performance of the aqueous solution.