Industrial Collaborators, Both Past and Present


Industrial collaborators are an important part of our research, because of the genuine intellectual collaboration as well as their financial support. With the reduction in industrial research that has been and is continuing in the chemical industry, I believe that research done in a University setting offers many advantages to a corporation. Chief among these advantages is the incredibly low cost of sponsoring programs at a University along with the cutting edge equipment and high level of fundamental understanding available at a University. Corporations have sponsored over $2,000,000 worth of research in our group. The companies listed below that have sponsored our research. A brief description of a selected number of different projects is given below so that the reader can truly understand the wide variety of industrial projects in our laboratory.

Effect of Branching on Surfactant Performance sponsored by ExxonMobil
A small number of branches (secondary branches only) is thought not to change the biodegradability of surfactants, yet on the other hand will in general improve solubility of surfactants and will be less likely to form gel phases. With Jeff Harwell and Dave Sabatini, we looked at a number of these surfactants.

Reduction of "Permastink" in Synthetic Fabrics sponsored by Church and Dwight
As anyone who exercises knows, it is very difficult to remove the odor from the clothes via washing, a phenomena known as "Permastink". This problem is much more prevalent with synthetics, e.g. polyester or polyurethanes, than with cotton because of the higher hydrophobicity of the former. The HLD concept was not enough to improve cleaning sufficiently and chemical methods using amine groups showed significant improvements in cleaning. This project was done in collaboration with Jeff Harwell. A paper on this work can be found here.

Optimal Chemical Modification of Guar for Downhole Applications sponsored by United Guar
Guar is used as a thickener in a number of different applications, including in cheese, ice cream and dough. In addition, guar and its chemically modified derivatives are used downhole to transport sand to a fracture in order to allow oil to flowback when pressure is released after fracturing. In this project, with funding provided by OCAST, we are quantifying the relationship between reaction variables, guar chemical modification, and rheological performance. Papers on this work can be found here and here.

Development of a New Surfactant Based on the Sulfoxide Moiety sponsored by Novus
Nonionic surfactants are almost exclusively based on the ethylene oxide moiety. Sulfoxides are a class of water-soluble functional groups that can be used to create a surfactant. These types of surfactants were originally studied in the 1960's and then largely forgotten, until our group in collaboration with Novus started investigating this unique functional group. The fundamental molecule that we are using includes both carboxylic and alcohol moieties on the same molecule, which means that it is possible to build varying hydrophilicity into the headgroup. This research was selected as a finalist for the Best Product Innovation by ICIS and is the subject of multiple pending patents. This project was done in collaboration with Jeff Harwell. Papers on this work can be found here, here and here. Four patents resulted from this work.

Interfacial Characteristics of Crude Oil-Water at High Temperatures sponsored by Phillips66
The crude-oil/water interface is critical for a number of different processes in crude oil extraction and refining. For example, water must be removed from crude oil prior to being fed to a distillation unit, or else the distillation unit will rapidly corrode. Water exists in crude oil as small droplets, and it is necessary to adjust the oil/water interface to facilitate bulk separation of the water from the oil. This interface has been widely studied, but not at the temperatures where such separation often occurs, which is above the normal boiling point of water. We have developed specialized equipment that operates at elevated pressures to measure these properties. This project was done in collaboration with Dr. Jeff Harwell. One patent resulted from this work.

Investigation of Asphaltene Compounds as Surface Active Moieties sponsored by Conoco-Phillips
A number of different types of solids exist under varying conditions, but one of the most important is a class of compounds termed asphaltenes. The usual, but imprecise, definition of crude-oil asphaltenes are the toluene-soluble, heptane-insoluble components of crude oil. The scientific goal of this project was to understand the behavior of asphaltenes in bulk crude oil in terms of interfacial properties at the organic liquid-air interface; interfacial properties at the organic liquid-aqueous interface and surface adsorbing properties at the organic liquid-solid interface. This project was done in collaboration with Dr. Jeff Harwell. A paper on this work can be found here.

Development of A Nano-Coating for Dental Implants sponsored by Imtec
Poly lactic-co-glycolic (PLGA) nanoparticles are well-known for their ability to degrade and release pharmaceutics. Our group took this approach a bit further. We developed ~300 nm nanoparticles with encapsulated nanoparticles in order to speed healing of dental implants. Dental implants are screwed into the jawbone and provide an excellent way to permanently replace missing teeth; however one disadvantage is that the time to full functionality is ~6 months. Our goal was to speed this healing time. This project was done in collaboration with Dr. Vassilios Sikavitsas.

Development of A Method to Increase Fracture Stress of Rock in Oil Wells sponsored by Halliburton
The layer-by-layer method is a well-known method for "growing" a polymer film on a surface. The principle is to use charged polymers to adsorb to an oppositely charged surface, then grow the layers sequentially by alternating polymers having different charge. The same principle was used here, except latex beads are used. One can build up a layer using this technique, which in turn increases the hydrostatic stress required to crack the rock. A paper on this work can be found here.

Development of A Replacement for Portland Cement for Use in Oil Wells sponsored by Halliburton
Low-cost polyalkenoate cements analogous to dental cements, i.e. cements based on polymers containing acrylic acid crosslinked both covalently and via bridging metal cations, were developed with a goal of producing a more flexible alternative to normal Portland cement. A paper on this work can be found here. Two patents resulted from this work.

Development of Modified Sand sponsored by Halliburton
We modified the surface of sand in order to improve the ability of this material to function well in an oil well. Sand is used to keep cracks open in the ground so that oil can seep out from the surrounding rock and eventually make its way to the surface. The sand reaches the crack via suspension in a polymer-water mixture and flow of the water to the crack, and once in place the oil flows through the sand. You want to minimize the viscosity of the sand-water mixture to improve pumpability. A paper on this work can be found here and here.

X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy of Surlyn Ionomers sponsored by DuPont (Sabine Research Laboratory)
Surlyn ion-containing polymers are copolymers of ethylene and methacrylic acid. Our purpose is to understand on a molecular basis why ionomers have such interesting properties, such as why they are so incredibly tough. Our approach is to quantify arrangement of atoms, i.e. what atoms are located where, using EXAFS. Our unique capabilities led to a National Science Foundation sponsored program to research these materials, as well as significant direct financial and material support by DuPont. The ionomer page gives a list of the publications that was the result of support of this research.

Powder Coating Product Support sponsored by Innotek Powder Coatings LLC
Our interaction with PFS has been in the area of product development and product characterization. PFS produces thermoplastic powders and powder coating equipment for a wide variety of customers. Powder coating with thermoplastics consists of taking a thermoplastic material, grinding it to make a powder, then coating the object either by flame-spraying, electrostatic spraying or dip coating. The primary use of powder coating is for corrosion protection, although there are many other uses as well. Our laboratory has developed a proprietary method to characterize the rheology of the powder coating process, and has used this process to identify materials that are good candidates for product development as a powder coating.

Interaction of Surface Treatments using Water-Based Cleaners with Different Coatings sponsored by Chemical Process Industries
CPI is a small Oklahoma City based corporation. CPI manufactures and sells a water-based cleaner to be used for cleaning surfaces prior to coating under the AquaCleen trademark. In our laboratory, we evaluate how different formulations of this cleaner interact with off the shelf paints and other coatings on different surfaces. The evaluation process includes detailed statistical measures of any changes in performance, and fundamental investigations of what causes the interations.


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