Cryogels to Increase the Service Life of Winter Roads

The work proposes a method for forming a composite cryotron material based on an aqueous solution of polyvinyl alcohol for application to the surface of a snow-ice sheet. Freezing an aqueous solution of polyvinyl alcohol at a negative temperature and subsequent thawing at a temperature above zero leads to the formation of elastic cryogels. The introduction of boric acid into a polymer solution leads to chemical cross-linking of kinetically individual macromolecules of polyvinyl alcohol into spatial networks that have elastic properties. The practical interest in using materials based on cryogels is due to environmental safety, high physicochemical and thermophysical properties, a simple method for their preparation and low cost. When studying the kinetics of gelation of multicomponent systems, it was observed that the formation of a gel at a temperature of 5 °C occurs after approximately 13 hours. It has been established that with increasing temperature control time of the gel at a temperature of 5 °C, the elastic modulus of samples obtained as a result of a chemical reaction increases by 2 times in approximately 120 h. It has been shown that after cryostructuring of multicomponent solutions, the elastic modulus increases 9 times. The presence of sand in a structured system significantly increases the elastic properties of the gel and cryogel. It should be noted that the thermal conductivity coefficient of cryogels is almost 2 times less than that of water, and the melting point is more than 60 °C. The results of practical experiments show that coating a snow-ice surface with cryogel reduces the rate of its melting and, therefore, compositions based on cryogels can be used to extend the life of safe operation of winter roads. For citation: Fufaeva M.S., Altunina L.K. Cryogels to increase the service life of winter roads. ChemChemTech Izv. Vyssh. Uchebn. Zaved. Khim. Khim. Tekhnol.. 2024. V. 67. N 8. P. 29-35. DOI: 10.6060/ivkkt.20246708.13t.