Gas hydrates have been endowed with great potential as the medium for natural gas storage & transportation. In this work, we prepared novel nanopromoters by grafting hydrophilic groups (SO₃⁻, COO⁻ and N[CH₃]₃⁺) covalently on polystyrene nanospheres (Group@PSNS), and for the first time achieved rapid formation of methane hydrates together compact agglomeration by regulating the hydrophilic groups on the surface of nanopromoters. When SO₃⁻@PSNS was used, methane hydrates formed rapidly but loosely in the reactor; while for COO⁻@PSNS and N(CH₃)₃⁺@PSNS, even the hydrate formation rate was seriously reduced, the formed hydrates agglomerated compactly in the reactor bottom. Interestingly, when both SO₃⁻ and COO⁻ were fixed on the nanospheres, both the hydrate growth rate and agglomeration compactness were controlled. Especially, the nanopromoter with the SO₃⁻/COO⁻ molar ratio of 2:1 resulted in the formation of methane hydrates with compact agglomeration morphology within 1–2 hr and with the storage capacity reaching 140–145 vol/vol.

中文翻译：

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通过调节纳米促进剂的亲水基团，以紧密的团聚快速形成甲烷水合物

天然气水合物作为天然气储存和运输的介质具有巨大的潜力。在这项工作中，我们制备的新型nanopromoters通过接枝亲水基团（ SO ₃ ^- ， COO ^-和 N [CH ₃ ] ₃ ⁺）共价聚苯乙烯纳米球（组@ PSNS），并首次实现的快速形成甲烷通过调节纳米促进剂表面的亲水基团将水合物紧密地团聚在一起。当 SO ₃ ^-被用来@PSNS，甲烷水合物在反应器中迅速但松散形成的; 而对于 COO^- @PSNS和 N（CH ₃）_3个⁺ @PSNS，即使是水合物的形成速率严重降低，在反应器底部紧凑地附聚的形成水合物。有趣的是，当两个 SO ₃ ^-和 COO ^-被固定在纳米球，无论是水合物生长速率和凝聚紧凑进行控制。尤其是，与该nanopromoter  SO ₃ ^- /  COO ^- 摩尔比为2：1的甲烷水合物在1-2小时内形成紧凑的团聚形态，储存容量达到140-145 vol / vol。