Formation of mineral scales on heat exchangers is a persistent and expensive problem. In the presentpaper, the calcium carbonate scale inhibition by two inhibitors, polyacrylic acid (PAA) and 2-phosphonobutane-1,2,4-tricarboxylic acid (PBTCA) has been studied in a pool boiling system. It is found that PBTCA has abetter inhibition effect than PAA under the identical conditions. X-ray diffraction(XRD) and Fourier transform-infrared(FTIR) analyses demonstrate that the content of vaterite increases as inhibition effects increase. Themetastable crystal forms of vaterite and aragonite are stabilized kinetically in the presence of inhibitors. Therelationship between the inhibition effect and the fractal dimension has also been investigated. The result showsthat the fractal dimension is higher in the presence of inhibitors. The better the inhibition effect, the higher thefractal dimension. The step morphology was observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) images. It is shown thatthe step space on the calcium carbonate surface increases in the presence of inhibitors. Moreover, with the increaseof inhibition effect, both the step space and the fractal dimension increase. The step bunching is found on thecalcium carbonate by AFM. The better the inhibition effect of the inhibitor, the slower the step velocity in theunbunched location. As a result, the step space becomes wider in the presence of PBTCA than that in the presenceof PAA.
展开▼
