William Marsh Rice University

Nalco Company

Ecolab USA Inc.

Austen K Flatt

James Mitchell Tour

Bo Chen

Peter A Webber

Christopher A Dyke

Peter G Conrad

Duy T Nguyen

Michael P Stewart

Victor V Keasler

Marcus D Faust, Jr

Thomas M Weathers, Jr

Condell D Doyle

Jason J Stephenson

Jianli He

Francisco Maya

Marcus D Faust

Thomas M Weathers

Disclosed herein are corrosion inhibiting compounds and compositions useful in applications relating to the production, transportation, storage, and separation of crude oil and natural gas. Also disclosed herein are methods of using the compounds and compositions as corrosion inhibitors, particularly in applications relating to the production, transportation, storage, and separation of crude oil and natural gas.

Quaternary and cationic ammonium surfactants as corrosion inhibitors

Disclosed and claimed is a composition and method of inhibiting the formation of hydrate agglomerates in a fluid comprising water, gas, and optionally liquid hydrocarbon. The composition comprises the following formula and the method comprises adding to the fluid an effective anti-agglomerant amount of any of the following formula and optionally salts thereof. R, R, and Rare each independently CHor benzyl. Ris C-Calkyl or alkenyl. n is an integer from 0 to 10. Xis a counterion.

Composition and method for reducing hydrate agglomeration

A method for reducing the viscosity of a hydrocarbon fluid encountered in petroleum operations is disclosed. The method includes contacting the hydrocarbon fluid with an effective amount of a composition comprising at least one polymer having at least 25 mole percent cationic monomers.

Method of reducing the viscosity of hydrocarbon fluids

The present invention is directed toward methods of attaching or grafting carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to silicon surfaces. In some embodiments, such attaching or grafting occurs via functional groups on either or both of the CNTs and silicon surface. In some embodiments, the methods of the present invention include: (1) reacting a silicon surface with a functionalizing agent (such as oligo(phenylene ethynylene)) to form a functionalized silicon surface; (2) dispersing a quantity of CNTs in a solvent to form dispersed CNTs; and (3) reacting the functionalized silicon surface with the dispersed CNTs. The present invention is also directed to the novel compositions produced by such methods.

Methods of attaching or grafting carbon nanotubes to silicon surfaces and composite structures derived therefrom

A composition comprising one or more siloxane cross-linked demulsifiers wherein said siloxane cross-linked demulsifiers are prepared by reacting one or more alkylphenol-formaldehyde resin alkoxylates, one or more polyalkylene glycols, or a mixture thereof, with up to about 1.0 molar equivalents of one or more silicon-based cross-linkers of formula RRRRSi wherein R, R, R, R, Rand Rare independently selected from H, Cl, C-Calkyl and C-Calkoxy; R. is selected from H, Cl, C-Calkyl, C-Calkoxy and a group of formula LSiRRR; Lis absent or is selected from &#x2014;O&#x2014;, arylene and C-Calkylene, optionally interrupted by one or more &#x2014;O&#x2014; or &#x2014;N(R)&#x2014;; and Ris H or C-Calkyl and a method of using the demulsifier composition to resolve water-in-oil emulsions.

Siloxane cross-linked demulsifiers

The present invention is directed to methods of separating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by their electronic type (e.g., metallic, semi-metallic, and semiconducting). Perhaps most generally, in some embodiments, the present invention is directed to methods of separating CNTs by bandgap, wherein such separation is effected by interacting the CNTs with a surface such that the surface interacts differentially with the CNTs on the basis of their bandgap, or lack thereof. In some embodiments, such methods can allow for such separations to be carried out in bulk quantities.

Bulk separation of carbon nanotubes by bandgap

Work from several laboratories has shown that metal nanofilaments cause problems in some molecular electronics testbeds. A new testbed for exploring the electrical properties of single molecules has been developed to eliminate the possibility of metal nanofilament formation and to ensure that molecular effects are measured. This metal-free system uses single-crystal silicon and single-walled carbon nanotubes as electrodes for the molecular monolayer. A direct Si-arylcarbon grafting method is used. Use of this structure with &#x3c0;-conjugated organic molecules results in a hysteresis loop with current-voltage measurements that are useful for an electronic memory device. The memory is non-volatile for more than 3 days, non-destructive for more than 1,000 reading operations and capable of more than 1,000 write-erase cycles before device breakdown. Devices without &#x3c0;-conjugated molecules (Si&#x2014;H surface only) or with long-chain alkyl-bearing molecules produced no hysteresis, indicating that the observed memory effect is molecularly relevant.

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Sugar Land, TX, United States of America

Austen K Flatt