Production and Applications of Naphthalene Sulfonate Water Reducing Agent

Risk aversion plunged on the positive news of the Russia-Ukraine talks. After several days of rising oil prices, the price of precious metals continued to fall. Domestic futures markets remain stable for the time being.

Back in international markets, WTI crude futures briefly dipped below $100 a barrel, while Brent crude hit its lowest intraday level in nearly two weeks. Spot gold briefly fell below $1,900 an ounce. Comex gold futures closed down 1.1 percent at $1,918.4 an ounce. Comex silver futures closed down 1.14 percent at $24.91 an ounce. "Recently, crude oil prices have been extremely sensitive to changes in geopolitical news." Traders believe that the current oil price is still in the broad impact, Ukraine will still be a premium in the case, although the market further decline, but should not be too pessimistic, it is recommended to wait and see for the time being. The Ukrainian premium is still there and there will be some volatility in the Water Reducing Agent market.

Introduction to Naphthalene Sulfonate Water Reducing Agent:

It is the product of naphthalene sulfonated by sulfuric acid and then condensed with formaldehyde, which belongs to an anionic surfactant. The appearance of this kind of water-reducing agent depending on different products is light yellow to dark brown powder. It is soluble in water and has a good dispersing effect on many powder materials such as cement. The water reduction rate is 25%.

Preparation method of Naphthalene Sulfonate Water Reducing Agent:

The synthetic route of naphthalene sulfonate superplasticizer is as follows:

naphthalene → sulfonation → hydrolysis → condensation → neutralization → filtration → drying → product 

The raw material for production is naphthalene. First, the sulfonation reaction is carried out with concentrated sulfuric acid. The mole ratio of naphthalene to sulfuric acid is 1:1.3-1.4.  The reaction temperature was 160 - 165℃ and the reaction time was 3h.  Then the reactants were cooled to 120℃ for hydrolysis. At this time, naphthalene sulfonic acid was stable, while naphthalene sulfonic acid was easy to hydrolyze, thus reducing the amount of naphthalene sulfonic acid to facilitate the next polycondensation reaction. The hydrolysis time was about 30min. The condensation reaction is an important reaction in the production of a naphthalene sulfonate water reducer. At a certain temperature, the sulfonated naphthalene was condensed with formaldehyde to form a polymer compound. This reaction strongly affects the performance of the product.  In order to find the optimal process parameters, the effects of condensation time, condensation temperature, and the ratio of formaldehyde and naphthalene on product properties were investigated by means of uniform design.  The optimal temperature condition is 104℃. The optimal reaction time was 6h.  The optimal condition of formaldehyde dosage is 0.75. The maximum expected theoretical value is 18.3. 

Industrial production process of Naphthalene Sulfonate Water Reducing Agent:

(1) naphthalene: Naphthalene is solid at room temperature, and it is necessary to put naphthalene into the naphthalene kettle for heating and melting. 

(2) sulfonation: The sulfonation process is to add concentrated sulfuric acid to the sulfonation kettle and react with it to produce naphthalene sulfonic acid.  There are two types of naphthalene sulfonic acid: α -naphthalene sulfonic acid and β -naphthalene sulfonic acid. 

(3) hydrolysis: As α -naphthalene sulfonic acid is produced in the sulfonation reaction, its presence is not conducive to the condensation reaction, so it needs to add water to hydrolyze α -naphthalene sulfonic acid. 

(4) condensation: After the end of hydrolysis reaction to condensation kettle drop formaldehyde, and β -naphthalene sulfonic acid reaction to generate naphthalene sulfonated formaldehyde condensation. 

(5) neutralization: After condensation, the material enters the neutralization kettle, drops liquid alkali, neutralizes the excess sulfuric acid in the sulfonation reaction, and stops dropping when the PH reaches 7-9. 

The control system mainly monitors the production status of four different reaction reactors and their batching tanks. The production line can also carry out four production lines at the same time. Taking production line A as an example, there are one naphthalene reactor, two sulfonation reactors, four condensation reactors, and one neutralization reactor. Each reaction kettle has a feed valve, discharge valve, emptying valve, hot oil valve, cooling water valve, steam pressure valve, flush valve, etc., the reaction kettle with a raw material tank, two sulfonated kettles shared a sulfuric acid tank, every two condensation kettles would be equipped with a set of formaldehyde tank and dilution tank, each condensation kettle has a hydrolysis tank, liquid alkali tank to neutralize the alkali added drops in the kettle.

Applications of Naphthalene Sulfonate Water Reducing Agent:

Naphthalene water-reducing agent is a kind of concrete additive invented by Dr. Hwab Kenichi in Japan in 1962. It is a kind of chemical synthetic product of naphthalene sulfonate formaldehyde condensation, with industrial naphthalene, concentrated sulfuric acid, formaldehyde, and alkali as the main raw material. Adding a naphthalene water-reducing agent to concrete can not only improve the strength of concrete but also improve its various properties, such as wear resistance, corrosion resistance, permeability resistance, etc. Therefore, naphthalene water-reducing agent is widely used in roads, bridges, tunnels, docks, civil buildings, and other industries.

Suppliers of Concrete Additives

TRUNNANO is a reliable concrete additives supplier with over 12-year experience in nano-building energy conservation and nanotechnology development. If you are looking for high-quality concrete additives, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. (sales@cabr-concrete.com)

We accept payment via Credit Card, T/T, West Union, and Paypal. Trunnano will ship the goods to customers overseas through FedEx, DHL, by air, or by sea.

Since the beginning of this year, China's macro policies have made continuous efforts to stabilize economic growth. America and Europe are raising interest rates to control inflation. On March the European Central Bank left its three key interest rates unchanged and began to scale back its asset-purchase programme. Then the Federal Reserve raised the target range of the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 0.25%-0.5%. The accelerated tightening of monetary policies in the US and Europe pushed capital back to the US and increased interest rates, which will definitely increase the risk of RMB depreciation and capital outflow. The price and market of the Water Reducing Agent will also be affected, resulting in a range of fluctuations. You are welcome to contact us for the latest quotation of Water Reducing Agent.

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