Inhibitors of crystallization may be generally effective for a variety of mineral scales or in some cases may be selected for a narrower range of scales. Such generality and specificity of action may be understood in terms of stereospecific and nonspecific mechanisms of scale inhibition. By combining atomic force microscopy, molecular modeling, scanning electron microscopy, and optical microscopy, both stereospecific and nonspecific interactions of some inhibitors with calcite, calcium oxalate monohydrate, and ice were examined. The crystals were chosen as representative of strong ionic, hydrated ionic, and hydrogen-bonded lattices. Both stereospecific and nonspecific interactions were observed in each case. The strongest interactions of the adsorbate with the crystal surfaces were elucidated at the A level with good agreement between experiment and theory. Such definition of the weaker interactions require more work, and in fact may be beyond the reach of current methodology. However, reasonable models of each of the interactions have been proposed.
Keywords: calcite, calcium oxalate, ice, atomic force microscopy, molecular modeling, polyaspafiate, phosphocitrate, antiscalant