Effect of Amphiphilic Copolymer SMASS on Rheological Properties of Coal-Water Slurry

As dispersants of coal water slurry (CWS),a series of amphiphilic copolymers (SMASS) with different grafting degrees of p-aminobenzene sulfonic acid to styrene-maleic anhydride copolymer backbone were synthesized and characterized by ¹H-NMR and FT-IR.The hydrophilicity of coal surface was improved by dispersants according to the contact angle data.The effects of coal concentration of CWS,dispersants with different grafting ratios and dosage on the rheological properties and the stability of CWS were investigated.Experimental results showed that the rheological properties and stability of CWS can be improved by SMASS,and when the grafting ratio is 0.28,SMASS1 shows the best performance.Compared to poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride naphthylamide sulfonate) (SMANS2 with grafting ratio of 0.50) and a commercial lignin dispersant (AD),SMASS2 (with grafting ratio of 0.49)performs the best.It is confirmed that SMASS is a new type of effective and relatively inexpensive dispersant with a great potential for industrial application.