Evaluation of Arginine‐Modified Polyepoxysuccinic Acid as Anti‐scaling and Anti‐corrosion Agent

Arginine-modified polyepoxysuccinic acid (Arg-PESA) was used as a scale inhibitor to study its anti-scaling and anti-corrosion performance. The existence of arginine groups enhances the adsorption and chelation of calcium substances, thus inhibiting the formation of a calcium scale. The effects of temperature, scale inhibitor concentration, pH, and calcium ion concentration on scale inhibition performance were studied. The morphologies and structures of the calcium scale and carbon steel coupons were observed and characterized by spectroscopic and microscopic methods. The interaction between Arg-PESA and different crystal surfaces of calcium carbonate was simulated by molecular dynamics to elucidate the anti-scaling mechanism. The addition of Arg-PESA also significantly enhanced the dispersion of iron oxide.