Carpenter Katherine, Bahadur Vaibhav
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, Texas 78712, United States.
J Phys Chem Lett. 2016 Jul 7;7(13):2465-9. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.6b01166. Epub 2016 Jun 17.
Nucleation of hydrates involves very long induction times (hours to days), which is a challenge for applications requiring rapid hydrate formation. This study introduces and analyzes the use of electric fields to accelerate and control hydrate nucleation. Experiments with tetrahydrofuran (THF) hydrates reveal that the induction time can be reduced by 100×, by applying an electrical potential across the precursor solution. The induction time rapidly decreases with increasing voltages and is on the order of a few minutes at 100 V. It is seen that voltage-induced current flow in the solution is responsible for electronucleation. Very low currents (microamperes) are sufficient for electronucleation. Nucleation promotion can be attributed to phenomena associated with bubble formation due to chemical reactions at the electrodes. Overall, this study lays the foundation for the control and promotion of nucleation by electric fields, and enables possibilities for instantaneous nucleation.
水合物的成核涉及很长的诱导时间（数小时至数天），这对于需要快速形成水合物的应用来说是一个挑战。本研究介绍并分析了利用电场来加速和控制水合物成核的方法。对四氢呋喃（THF）水合物进行的实验表明，通过在前驱体溶液上施加电势，诱导时间可缩短100倍。诱导时间随着电压的升高而迅速缩短，在100 V时约为几分钟。可以看出，溶液中电压诱导的电流流动是电成核的原因。非常低的电流（微安）就足以实现电成核。成核促进可归因于与电极处化学反应导致的气泡形成相关的现象。总体而言，本研究为电场控制和促进成核奠定了基础，并实现了瞬时成核的可能性。
