Effect of surface structure on the kinetic of THF hydrate formation

The most important aim of this study is to check the surface effect on THF/H2O hydrate formation by the volumetric method [Asadi et al. J. Mol. Liq., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2019.111200]. A wide variety of experiments have been conducted to investigate effective parameters on hydrate formation. Suitable additives and operational conditions have been already studied while the effect of other parameters including surface efficacy has not been considered. Hence, the experiments have been done at atmospheric pressure in a cell that has a prefabricated surface. Therefore, the modified surfaces used here are 304 stainless steel specimens with specific roughness which have been coarsened through laser. Since the roughness and wettability of metallic plates play a critical role in hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity of surfaces, the contact angles have been measured between 123.00 and 23.47 degrees changing the speed of laser radiation. It is demonstrated, increasing radiation speed forms a hydrophilic surface. Moreover, hydrate nucleation and growth have been rapidly recorded via volume changes of solution. Subsequently, the most effective surface has been recognized according to induction and relaxation time as well as the rate of hydrate formation. The results show that developing a hydrophilic surface, the rate of THF hydrate formation is highly increased. Therefore, this study can provide a new viewpoint in the relation of surface structure and the kinetics of THF/H2O hydrate formation.