Plant-based herding agent promising for oil spills response in cold regions and its effect on oil/water mixtures freezing and thawing as revealed by MRI

This work reports on the first multi-scale NMR study of new plant-based herding agent suitable for application in Arctic marine environment. Using NMR spectroscopy the chemical components of the herding agent were established while through the NMR relaxometry and diffusometry the local dynamics, molecular mobility, and transport properties of the components were studied depending on water content upon dilution. MRI method was first applied to probe the effect of herder on freezing and thawing processes occurring in dodecane/water and light oil/water mixtures. It was found out that the herder affects the internal structure and the surface texture of the ice under oil slick, and presence of herder is supposed to shift the heat balance in marine freeze/thawing cycling inherent to cold regions. The results of the work contribute into better understanding of the surfactantoil/water/ice interaction and facilitate more effective application of herders for oil spills response in marine environment.