Russian scientists have received silver structures that can be used to protect pipelines from corrosion

Russian scientists from the Institute of Solid Body Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the first time in the world have received unique silver structures that can be used to protect pipelines from corrosion. The work is supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RPF). An article about the study is published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

“For the first time we were able to obtain star-shaped non-filtration silver particles, the density of which is less than the density of water. And this was done by a simple, but at the same time universal and environmentally friendly method of hydrochemical deposition,” says the study’s lead author, Stanislav Sadovnikov, a senior researcher at the Institute of Solid Body Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The very method of obtaining such particles was patented in Russia.

Thin -disciped (small) silver powders are used to produce catalysts (chemical reaction accelerators), water treatment, biology and medicine as substances with a bactericidal effect. A thin film of silver or polymers consisting of silver nanoparticles can be made to make an unsmaved coating to protect surfaces from chemically aggressive liquids. Usually silver nanoparticles have a spherical shape, but in recent years scientists have begun to work on obtaining other varieties of them. So there were silver cubes, flat triangles and plates, prisms, “wires” and various rays. Doing this is often not easy: synthesis can be expensive or complex, as well as ablation – evaporation under the influence of a laser – to produce powder.

The shape of multi-beam silver particles is distorted, they resemble star polyhedrons: from dodekaedra with 20 peaks to ikosaedra with 60 peaks. The length of the rays of such particles is determined by the conditions of synthesis and is not related to the symmetry relations characteristic of star polyhedrons. These particles measuring 30-50 microns and 24-56 beams were synthesized by a simple and environmentally friendly method of silver nitrate, which was decomposed in an alkaline environment. From such structures chemists made a coating on which a drop of water remained spherical and did not wet the surface under itself.

“Powder or films made of ultra-dispersive star-shaped silver particles can be used as protective coatings of pipelines for oil and its processing products,” stanislav Sadovnikov said. “The use of such coatings due to their non-expality with refining products and other aggressive liquids will increase their corrosion resistance several times, increase the duration of non-emergency pipeline maintenance, significantly improve the environmental safety of pipeline systems, reduce the cost of maintaining and replacing pipelines. The same benefits will be achieved with similar chemical industry pipeline coatings.”

Scientists add that the resulting silver particles have a very large surface area and can be used as catalysts or substrates for them

.Source indicator.ru