Pour point depressant (PPD) emulsion has been gaining attention in crude oil transportation owing to its potential to solve solidification issues that arise in cold climate environments. An emulsion system provides a wide range of temperature application that combines good shelf life and tunable thermal properties to tackle this problem. These features can be achieved by incorporating an antifreeze agent into the emulsion. One of the most commonly used antifreeze agents is ethylene glycol (EG). Hence, this study focuses on the thermal properties and droplet size growth of PPD emulsions that were aged in variable concentrations of EG solution. EG50 exhibited the lowest freezing temperature of -44 °C, while EG25 demonstrated the lowest vitrification temperature of -68.7 °C. The particle size of the emulsions underwent a significant reduction from 332.3 to 228.9 nm upon the stepwise EG concentration increment to EG50. However, when the concentration was increased to EG75, a slight increase in the emulsion particle size was observed with a recorded value of 237.8 nm. Thus, it is concluded that EG50 represents the optimum concentration for delivering the best freezing protection and producing a smaller droplet particle size.
The astonishing outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, known as COVID-19, has attracted numerous research interests, particularly regarding fabricating antimicrobial surface coatings. This initiative is aimed at overcoming and minimizing viral and bacterial transmission to the human. When contaminated droplets from an infected individual land onto common surfaces, SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is able to survive on various surfaces for up to 9 days. Thus, the possibility of virus transmission increases after touching or being in contact with contaminated surfaces. Herein, we aim to provide overviews of various types of antiviral and antimicrobial coating agents, such as antimicrobial polymer-based coating, metal-based coating, functional nanomaterial, and nanocomposite-based coating. The action mode for each type of antimicrobial agent against pathogens is elaborated. In addition, surface properties of the designed antiviral and antimicrobial polymer coating with their influencing factors are discussed in this review. This paper also exhibits several techniques on surface modification to improve surface properties. Various developed research on the development of antiviral/antimicrobial polymer coating to curb the COVID-19 pandemic are also presented in this review.