Synthesis and scale inhibitor performance of polyaspartic acid.

Polyaspartic acid (PASP) has been extensively studied in recent years as a green scale inhibitor. PASP was synthesized by thermal polycondensation of maleic anhydride and ammonium carbonate in this study. The optimal polycondensation reaction conditions were the raw material (maleic anhydride and ammonium carbonate) molar ratio of 1.0:1.2, the polymerization temperature of 180°C and reaction time of 2.0 hr. The results showed that PASP exhibits very good scale inhibiting performance. The inhibition rate was 95% for calcium carbonate and 90% for calcium sulfate by the application of 5 mg/L PASP.