Wetting future research

Whereas the approach taken in this investigation has been to create insoluble hydrophobic surface-active reagents by the in situ chemical treatment of asphalt, future researchers may find it more convenient to use readily available petroleum sulfonates or carboxylates as additives. The use of low molecular weight carboxylic elastomers, for example, may permit improved wet-strength retention as well as increased toughness at low temperatures (22, 23,24). 

The suspension concentrate can also be prone to hard settling with very poor resuspensibility. The process to make a suspension concentrate is very energy intensive and some type of wet milling is usually required. The multiple formulation obstacles and limitations in performance of the suspension concentrate has led to one future research area that completely replaces die suspension concentrate with a structured surfactant fonnulation dtemative(S). 

Gulley, J. MacKinnon, M. Fine Tails Reclamation Utilizing a Wet Landscape Approach in Proc. Fine Tailings Symposium in Oil Sands Our Petroleum Future Conference Liu, J.K. (Ed.), Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority Edmonton, AB, 1993, Paper F23, 24 pp. 

Sol-Gel Sciences was motivated by our perception that the explosion of literature in this field has made it difficult for newcomers to catch up to the state of the art, and threatens to overwhelm researchers already involved in the subject. The problem is manifested by publications that unwittingly duplicate previous work, and interpretations based on discarded theories. There is clearly a need—which the present volume is intended to fill—for a text presenting a coherent account of the principles of sol-gel processing. The absence of such a book was justified until fairly recently by the Immaturity of the discipline. We feel that there has now been enough progress to enable us to present a view that is well-founded and unlikely to be overturned (except with respect to details) by future discoveries. Of course, there are many topics about which little is known (e.g., reaction kinetics in multicomponent systems or fracture mechanics of wet gels), and rapid progress in such areas can be expected to make this book require revisions within a few years. 

Finally, a few words are in order on research trends in the field, current and future ones. Colloid and surface science is not just an area of extensive applications but also an active field of research in essentially all its dimensions. Even a brief account of research trends in colloids and interfaces would require a separate book. We have nevertheless attempted to present research examples throughout the book, via case studies and problems, some of them taken from industrially-oriented applications. Several examples have been presented in the fields of paints, wetting and adhesion, surface characterization, surfactants and foams in Chapters 3,5,6 and 13. 

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