Ultra-stable aqueous foam stabilized by water-soluble alkyl acrylate crosspolymer

Aqueous foam solely stabilized by a kind of hydrophobic modified water-soluble polymer, alkyl acrylate crosspolymer (HMPAA), was found to be extraordinary stable, no matter in static state or under disturbance, even if CO2 was used as gas agent. The high water-holding capacity of HMPAA foam film demonstrated by FoamScan and FT-IR measurement was in accordance with the low gas transmission through the foam film, which was detected by FT-IR, too. Fluorescence Microscope, TEM and Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulation were used to get information about the adsorption and array behavior of HMPAA on the gas/water interface and in foam film, it was found that the comb polymer molecules adsorbed on the interface clustered to form plat network, which covered the interface very well like a "shell". By combining all these results, the mechanism of ultra high foam stability of HMPAA was revealed, and a novel approach to achieve long-term foam aqueous foam was proposed. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.