Durable and ductile double-network material for dust control

Abstract

Dust generation is a worldwide issue due to its serious deleterious effects on the environment, human health and safety, and the economy. Although various dust suppression methods have been used for decades, some critical drawbacks in state-of-the-art technology still remain unsolved, such as short-lasting, ground water impact, and prone to water. This work reports a soil stabilizer based on non-toxic material and forms a ductile and durable double-network in soil, namely "D 3 soil stabilizer", which not only improves soil mechanical toughness of surface soil but also suppresses dust generation. A copolymer comprising hydrophilic and hydrophobic components combined with enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation is utilized as an in-situ gelation binder to soil particle. The tunable hydrophobic-to-hydrophilic component ratio minimizes undesirable soil matrix expansion and mechanical strength loss upon experiencing wet-dry processes, while still retains good water affinity. We further demonstrated controllable treatment depth by fine-tuning precursor composition, which is essential to minimize environmental impact. The double-network morphology with carbonate precipitate embedded uniformly in polymer matrix is observed via microscopic imaging. The nature of outstanding ductility, high durability against water, and good long-term stability were supported by systematic unconfined compressive strength (UCS) measurements on treated soil, which show strong inter-particles binding, good retention of peak strength, increased strain at peak strength, and increased toughness after soil samples have experienced wet-dry processes.

Interpolyelectrolyte complexes based on hydrolyzed polyacrylonitrile for anti‐erosion stabilization of soils and ground

“…The destruction and degradation of topsoil is a key factor in reducing soil fertility. [1][2][3] Among various methods of soil stabilization, polymer-based approaches have been suggested, 4 which allow the mechanical characteristics of the soil to be enhanced, [5][6][7][8][9][10] suppressing dust transfer [10][11][12][13] and decreasing soil washout. [14][15][16] To date polyacrylamide (PAM) is regarded as the world's anti-erosion standard; this term is applied to various copolymers composed of acrylamide and acrylic acid salt.…”

Water retention in sandy substrates modified by cross‐linked polymeric microgels and their complexes with a linear cationic polymer

“…The efficacy of polymeric stabilizers is mainly determined by the characteristics of soil substrates and polymer binders 7–10 . As to the latters, amphiphilic stabilizers of dual nature with an affinity both to the hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces show a pronounced advantage over other polymers 11–14 …”

A Review of Enzyme Induced Carbonate Precipitation (EICP): The Role of Enzyme Kinetics

“…In addition to the improvement of soil strength, the precipitated CaCO 3 in EICP can fill the voids within the soil matrix thereby reducing porosity and permeability [18,[116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128]. Knorr [116] applied the EICP technique to control the impacts of water and wind erosion using different soil types such as Ottawa F60 sand, silty-sand and mine tailings.…”

“…They found that EICP-treated samples exhibited a threefold improvement in terms of the mass of soil lost compared to untreated specimens. Many other researchers have evaluated the effectiveness of the EICP technique for dust control [118][119][120][121] and surface water erosion mitigation [122][123][124][125], and have found the results to be satisfactory.…”