Poly(acrylic acid-co-itaconic acid) based antiscalant: synthesis and properties

Scale deposition (calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, and strontium sulfate) on the surface of heat exchangers and oil production equipments, water cooling systems, boilers, etc decreases the efficiency of the equipments. Poly (alkenoic acid) based antiscalants are low molecular weight copolymers which are used to inhibit the scale formation. In this work, poly(acrylic acid-co-itaconic acid) is synthesized and the effect of itaconic acid as comonomer is investigated on the inhibition properties of the antiscalant. Increasing the itaconic acid in the copolymer composition leads to lowere polymer molecular weight and improved antiscalant performance.