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<p>Silica scaling presents a longstanding challenge in industrial water systems, including heat exchangers, pipelines and membrane separation, where uncontrolled polymerization of silicic acid causes irreversible fouling and operational decline. Polymeric antiscalants offer promising mitigation; however, their design remains limited by incomplete molecular-level understanding. Here we introduce a modular synthetic platform that integrates controlled radical polymerization with post-polymerization modification to generate polymeric silica inhibitors with independently tunable chain length, functionality and conformation. Combining computation with experiment, we establish key structure–property relationships governing inhibition performance. We further identify a critical limitation of conventional designs: polymers displaying high inhibition efficiency sometimes aggregate and self-precipitate, compromising stability and long-term efficacy. Guided by these mechanistic insights, we develop inhibitors that sustain above 75% inhibition efficiency without precipitation. In a cooling-tower simulator, these polymers maintained effective silica control and preserved high thermal-transfer efficiency over extended operation. This work provides a molecular design framework for next-generation polymeric antiscalants, advancing scalable strategies for silica mitigation in sustainable water treatment and industrial infrastructure.</p><p></p>

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Modular macromolecular design unlocks high-performance silica scale inhibitors

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月9日

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  • Yinan Chen,
  • Zhongren Jiao,
  • Victoria Meola,
  • Yuchu Liu,
  • Charles Chen,
  • Masashi Kaneda,
  • Jiawei He,
  • Jae-Man Park,
  • Yifan Sun,
  • Leo Zhang,
  • Yazhen Xue,
  • Menachem Elimelech,
  • Mingjiang Zhong

摘要

Silica scaling presents a longstanding challenge in industrial water systems, including heat exchangers, pipelines and membrane separation, where uncontrolled polymerization of silicic acid causes irreversible fouling and operational decline. Polymeric antiscalants offer promising mitigation; however, their design remains limited by incomplete molecular-level understanding. Here we introduce a modular synthetic platform that integrates controlled radical polymerization with post-polymerization modification to generate polymeric silica inhibitors with independently tunable chain length, functionality and conformation. Combining computation with experiment, we establish key structure–property relationships governing inhibition performance. We further identify a critical limitation of conventional designs: polymers displaying high inhibition efficiency sometimes aggregate and self-precipitate, compromising stability and long-term efficacy. Guided by these mechanistic insights, we develop inhibitors that sustain above 75% inhibition efficiency without precipitation. In a cooling-tower simulator, these polymers maintained effective silica control and preserved high thermal-transfer efficiency over extended operation. This work provides a molecular design framework for next-generation polymeric antiscalants, advancing scalable strategies for silica mitigation in sustainable water treatment and industrial infrastructure.