Patent Application: US-201615098225-A

Abstract:
lipophilic super - absorbent swelling gels have been developed that will not only absorb the oil and grease from these machine parts , but will also act as an automated sweeper due to the self - generating mechanical force of the gel . an octadecylacrylate - co - ethylene glycol dimethacrylate tetraalkylammonium tetraphenylborate lipophilic polyelectrolyte gel and poly neutral gel were evaluated for swelling and oil sorption capacity . ng - 18 and eg - 18 gels removed particulate contaminants and absorbed oils and grease on metal and non - metal surfaces without causing abrasion . the gels are also recyclable . the cleaning ability of the gels was compared with the standard solvent cleaner trichloroethylene following astm g122 - 96 test methods and mil - prf - 680b procedure with mil - prf - 10924 test grease . polymer gel cleaners exhibited analogous extent and rate of cleaning as the tce . these recyclable superabsorbent polymer cleaners will allow drastic reduction in the use of voc containing solvents and hap release .

Description:
the overall objective of the proposed research was to develop an environmentally benign disruptive technology for cleaning metal and non - metal surfaces . the ability of two super absorbent polymer gel systems for removing oil , grease and particulates from metal and plastic surfaces was initially evaluated . upon successful proof of the surface cleaning ability of these gel systems , further research will focus on improving the gel performance by design and synthesis of additional polymer gel systems . further research will address the post - cleaning gel removal method , the use of non - fluorinated compounds in gel synthesis , and an evaluation of toxicity and environmental fate - and - effects of the gels . the proposed cleaner is in solid form and is voc - exempt , hap - free , non - toxic , non - corrosive , non - ozone depleting , recyclable , and self - generates the energy necessary for the cleaning function , thereby affording a new cost - effective , environmentally friendly cleaning technology . we hypothesized that lipophilic super - absorbent swelling gels would , upon contacting oil and grease on the metal and non - metal surfaces , exert enough mechanical forces by swelling to remove particulate matters , oil , and grease on the material surfaces simultaneously . also , that the super - absorbent gels would exhibit low friction behaviors and therefore not stick to , or cause damage on the surface of metal and nonmetal materials . existing solvent and blast cleaning technologies pose environmental concerns both during ( voc production from organic solvents and hap production from forced - air blast cleaning processes ) and after ( disposal of waste streams for solvent cleaning ; cleanup of blasted contaminants for forced air cleaning ) the cleaning operation . in addition , these techniques require on - site equipment such as the soaking bath and air compressor , and often necessitate operation in a confined , well - ventilated space . current limitations stated above call for a portable cleaning technology that will not pose environmental or health threats during or after the cleaning operations . the overall study aimed to utilize intricate designing of lipophilic super - absorbent swelling gels through careful selection of polymer backbone and ionic components , and the cross linking density for improved cleaning ability of the lipophilic swelling gels . after successful proof - of - concept , a follow - on project will be proposed to address other issues including the method for removing the gels after swelling , the use of non - fluorinated compounds in gel synthesis , and an evaluation of toxicity and environmental fate - and - effects of the gels . fig2 presents pathways for preparing the lipophilic polyelectrolyte swelling gel octadecylacrylate - co - ethylene glycol dimethacrylate tetraalkylammonium tetraphenylborate ( eg - 18 ) whose swelling behavior in organic solvent was presented in fig1 ( top ). as shown in fig2 , eg - 18 can be prepared via the following steps : step 2 : reaction of the product from step 1 with substituted tetraphenylborate ( tfpb − ); weakly coordinating lipophilic anion ) to form lipophilic ionic acrylate monomer . step 3 : copolymerization of the product from step 2 with the polymer backbone octadecyl acrylate ( oda ) using azobisisobutyronitrile ( aibn ) as the initiator and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate ( egdma ) as the cross linker . as illustrated in fig2 , the ratio of ionic unit tetraalkylammonium tetraphenylborate ( p ), polymer backbone oda ( q ), to cross linker egdma ( r ) for eg - 18 is kept at p : q : r = 5 : 95 : 1 for eg - 18 to maintain low content of ionic groups [ 4 ]. ionic group content must be kept low to avoid aggregation of ionic groups . neutral analogue stearylacrylate - co - ethylene glycol dimethacryale gel ( ng - 18 ) can be prepared by simply excluding the ionic tetraalkylammonium tetraphenylborate unit ( p ) for the feed ratio of p : q : r = 0 : 100 : 1 ( fig2 ). fig3 illustrates the impact of cross - linked polyacrylate polymer backbones on the swelling degree of ionic ( egn ) and neutral ( ngn ) gels . gels presented in fig3 possess polyacrylate backbones with alkyl chain lengths ranging from n = 18 ( r ═( ch 2 ) 17 ch 3 ), 16 ( r ═( ch 2 ) 15 ch 3 ), 12 ( r ═( ch 2 ) 11 ch 3 ), to 6 (( r ═( ch 2 ) 5 ch 3 ); see oda structures in fig2 ). swelling degrees ( q in wt / wt ) in fig3 were quantitatively determined by soaking a selected gel in an appropriate solvent for a fixed time using the following equation : where w dry and w wet are the weights of the dry and swollen gels , respectively . fig3 demonstrates that maximum absorbency of the polyelectrolyte gel ( egn ) shifts toward solvents with lower polarity as alkyl chain length ( i . e ., lipophilicity ) of polyacrylate backbone increases from n = 6 , 12 , 16 , to 18 . that is , eg - 18 exhibits maximum swelling by absorbing large quantities of organic solvents with dielectric constants between 3 and 10 ( fig3 ). on the other hand , eg6 shows maximum absorbency for much more polar solvents ( ε = 16 - 32 ). as shown in fig3 , for a given alkyl chain length ( n ), ionic gel ( egn ) swells to a much greater degree than the neutral analogue ( ngn ), as demonstrated visually for eg - 18 and ng - 18 in fig1 . as shown in fig3 , in solvents having dielectric constants below 3 , comparable degrees of swelling are observed for ionic and neutral gels . in such nonpolar solvents , dissociation of ions within egn is suppressed and ionic groups are tightly bound as ion pairs . as a result , the swelling of egn results only from stretching of polymer chains between crosslinks caused by the increase in entropy associated with mixing polymer with solvent . the following conclusions can be made from the review of recent and ongoing studies on polyelectrolyte and neutral lipophilic swelling gels provided above : ( 1 ) swelling degree and absorbency of lipophilic polyelectrolyte gels are much greater than their neutral analogues . ( 2 ) increased lipophilicity of both polymer backbones and ionic groups results in greater swelling capacity and absorbency in solvents having low dielectric constants . a promising candidate is the lipophilic super - absorbent gel that will swell by absorbing nonpolar organic solvents ( e . g ., hydrocarbon oils , vocs ) several hundred times their dry weight . this study aims to utilize intricate designing of lipophilic super - absorbent swelling gels through careful selection of polymer backbone and ionic components , and the cross linking density . designed swelling gels will function as the cleaner of the metal and non - metal surfaces by ( 1 ) absorption of oil and grease and ( 2 ) removal of particulate contaminants by self - generated mechanical forces obtained from swelling in ( 1 ). after the cleaning operation , cleaning media can be safely collected and recycled or used in fuel blends . in order to develop a new cleaning technology based on lipophilic super - absorbent swelling gels for the removal of oil , grease and particulate matter from metal and non - metal surfaces , specific tasks are formulated to maximize the cleaning efficiency of lipophilic gels by ( 1 ) testing cleaning ability of candidates eg - 18 and ng - 18 gels and ( 2 ) designing lipophilic gels with improved cleaning ability by appropriate selection of lipophilic polymer backbone , weakly coordinating anions , and enhancement of mechanical strength . elimination of fluorinated compounds in the gel synthesis was the focus of this and subsequent phases of this research . our research has identified two potential gels , a lipophilic polyelectrolyte ( eg - 18 ) gel and a neutral ( ng - 18 ) polymer gel for surface cleaning applications . these gels were evaluated during this initial phase of the study following the american society for testing and materials ( astm ) g122 - 96 ( 2008 ) and mil - prf - 680b protocols . representative contaminants of oil , grease and particulate materials were selected . the proposed scope of the full project was to elucidate the chemical and physical mechanisms in the removal of oil , grease , and particulate contaminants from metal and non - metal surfaces by lipophilic super - absorbent swelling gels . research outcomes will facilitate the development of environmentally compliant , economically feasible cleaners for a wide range of dod applications , providing a promising alternative to traditional vapor degreasing , solvent , aqueous , or blast cleaning processes . eg - 18 gel studies are not included in this report as these were reported by sada and coworkers [ 3 ]. all chemical reagents were used as received . stearylacrylate ( sa ), ethylene glycol dimethacrylate ( egdma ), benzene , azobisisobutylonitrile ( aibn ), methanol , ethanol , diethylether , and carbon tetrachloride were purchased from sigma - aldrich ( milwaukee , wis .). tetrahydrofuran ( thf ), isopropanol , acetonitrile , and dichloromethane were obtained from acros organics ( morris plains , n . j .). dimethylsulfoxide ( dmso ) and 1 - octanol were supplied from alfa aesar ( ward hill , mass .). chloroform and cyclohexane were distributed from vwr international ( west chester , pa .). acetone , methylisobutylketone ( mibk ), toluene , and n - hexane were supplied from fisher scientific ( pittsburgh , pa .). an instron 5900 electromechanical system was used for the compression of the gels . a jasco ft / ir - 4100 fourier transform infrared spectrometer was used for infrared spectroscopy . a typical protocol for the synthesis of ng - 18 gel is as follows : 10 . 0 g ( 30 . 8 mmol ) of sa ( monomer ) and 61 mg ( 0 . 31 mmol , the case of x = 1 ) of egdma ( crosslinker ) as initiator were placed in a vial tube and dissolved in 2 ml of benzene by heating at 50 ° c . oxygen in the solution was excluded by bubbling nitrogen gas for 45 min then 101 mg ( 0 . 62 mmol ) of aibn was added . the vial tube was sealed tightly and heated at 65 ° c . for 24 h for polymerization . gels with low crosslinking densities were prepared in a similar way by reducing the feed ratios of egdma . the synthesized gels were washed by swelling in hexane repeatedly , air - dried for 2 days , and dried in vacuum overnight . sa - co - egdma with two crosslinker ratios were prepared by radical copolymerization , which are represented as ng - 18 - x % ( x = 1 or 0 . 5 ; x denotes the mole ratio of crosslinker to sa . a typical protocol for the synthesis of eg - 18 gel is as follows : 125 mg ( 0 . 1 mmol ) of tfpb − and 617 mg ( 1 . 9 mmol ) of oda , 3 . 96 mg ( 0 . 02 mmol ) of egdma , and 6 . 57 mg ( 0 . 04 mmol ) of aibn were placed in a capillary of 7 . 0 mm in diameter and dissolved in benzene adjusted to 1 . 0 ml . the solution was degassed and polymerized by heating at 60 ° c . for 24 h . the feed ratio was adjusted to tfpb − : oda : egdma = 5 : 95 : 1 . gels with low crosslinking densities were prepared in a similar manner by reducing the feed ratios of egdma . the formed gels were washed by swelling in benzene for 10 h , and then air - dried at room temperature . the sample was cut into cylinders of about 1 . 0 mm in length , and the cylinders were dried in vacuo at 40 ° c . synthesis of eg - 18 gel was performed by sada and coworkers [ 3 ] at kyushu university , japan . the fourier transform infrared ( ftir ) spectra were obtained using jasco ft / ir - 4100 . compression strength was measured with instron 5900 electromechanical system and the compression speed was 0 . 25 mm / min . uv - vis spectra were collected using a thermospectronic aquamate 100 uv - vis spectrometer . swelling behavior of ng - 18 gels was determined with the following solvents of various polarities at 25 ± 1 ° c . using 5 ml vials : water , dmso , methanol , ethanol , isopropanol , 1 - octanol , acetone , mibk , acetonitrile , thf , diethylether , dichloromethane , chloroform , carbon tetrachloride , benzene , toluene , hexane , and cyclohexane . the mass of each empty vial was recorded and then a specified amount of dried gel was added to each vial . the vials were weighed and the amount of dried gel was noted ( w dry ). the vials were then filled with a solvent and allowed to equilibrate for 24 , 48 and 72 hours . the excess solvent was removed from the vials and the gels were weighed again ( w wet ). the amount of solvent absorbed by the gels was obtained from the difference in weights . the swelling degree ( q ) was defined by equation 1 . temperature dependence on swelling degree of ng - 18 - 1 % gel was measured in the above solvents at 20 , 40 , 60 , ( 60 →) 0 , and ( 25 →) 0 ° c . here , ( 60 →) 0 ° c . indicates that the sample was heated at 60 ° c . to achieve the equilibrium once and then cooled to 0 ° c . this was performed to investigate the record of the heating and cooling process . due to low boiling points , dichloromethane and diethylether were not used at 40 ° c . ; similarly acetone was not used at 60 ° c . likewise , dmso and cyclohexane were not used at 0 ° c . due to high freezing points . these values were indicated as q = 0 . to understand the kinetics of swelling behavior , the above procedure was followed with several vials and the amount of solvent absorbed was determined at different time intervals . critical temperatures were determined by uv - vis spectroscopy . swollen ng - 18 - 1 % gel in thf was placed in a temperature controlled quartz cell , which was monitored with thermocouples ( omega dp462 ). the transmittance at 700 nm was measured as a function of temperature by changing temperature at 0 . 1 ° c ./ min . while the swollen gel was transparent , the collapsed gel was opaque . the values of critical temperature in the heating and cooling process were obtained from a plot of transmittance versus temperature . cyclic temperature changes of both swelling degree and transmittance were performed to ascertain the reversibility of the gel . in the swelling test , a piece of ng - 18 - 1 % gel was first placed in thf for 48 h at 25 ° c . excess thf was removed from the vial , weighed , and the swelling degree was calculated . then the vial was filled with thf again , placed at 0 ° c . for 24 h , and swelling degree was measured by the same procedure . this cycling was repeated five times in total . in the transmittance study , thf swollen gels were placed in a temperature controlled quartz cell . the transmittance at 700 nm was measured at 25 ° c . and 0 ° c . alternatively . each step took about 30 min , and the procedure was repeated for a total of five cycles . the gels achieved equilibrium values at each step in both swelling and transmittance test . a piece of dried ng - 18 - 1 % and 0 . 5 % gels was swelled by adding excess toluene or thf . after eliminating extra solvent , compression strength was measured at a compression speed of 0 . 5 mm / min . stainless steel metal coupons were washed by acetone and methanol , and dried in vacuo for 72 hours . the coupons were soaked in sae - 30 oil and allowed to drip excess oil for 30 minutes . half of these coupons were also sprayed with alumina powder . the contaminated coupons were immersed in ng - 18 gels or toluene for 30 minutes . the percent of oil absorbed was then measured by comparing the weight of each coupon before and after immersion . analogous procedure was followed for field samples obtained from a naval cleaning facility . metal coupons were prepared according to mil - prf - 680b ( appendix a ), and uniformly coated with mil - prf - 10924 grease . beakers with the ng - 18 gels and trichloroethylene ( tce ) were placed into an ultrasonic cleaner . the test was started with a timer . the coupons were observed until all grease was visibly removed from the metal coupon , and the time was recorded in minutes . if a portion of grease remained on the metal coupon after 100 minutes , the test was immediately terminated with the testing time being recorded as 100 minutes . the cleaning power was determined by the equation : where a is the average cleaning time in minutes of the three tested runs [ 18 ]. ft - ir spectra of sa monomer and ng - 18 - 1 %, − 0 . 5 % are provided in fig4 . compared to the spectrum of stearylacrylate monomer , ng - 18 gels showed the disappearance of peaks in four regions . each peak was identified as follows : 1634 cm − 1 is c ═ c bond vibration , 1410 cm − 1 is c — h of c ═ ch 2 in - plane scissoring , 1297 cm − 1 is c — h of c ═ ch in - plane vibration , and 997 and 893 cm − 1 are c ═ ch out - plane vibration . the disappearance of these peaks of the vinyl group indicates that ng - 18 gels include a little non - reacted sa . fig5 shows the compression strength of swollen ng - 18 - 1 % gel in thf . the first breaking point is the stress of 0 . 371 mpa and the fracture strain of the gel is λ = 67 %. the ng - 18 - 1 % gel could withstand a similar degree of compression as reported by single network poly acrylamide gel prepared by gong et al . [ 11 ]. the swelling behavior of ng - 18 gels ( ng - 18 - 1 % and − 0 . 5 %) in solvents with various polarities from cyclohexane to water at 25 ° c . over the time periods of 24 , 48 and 72 hours were investigated ( fig6 ). the swelling degree increased with increasing polarity from cyclohexane , and the maximum value was observed in chloroform . on the other hand , the gels collapsed in the more polar solvents ( dielectric constant ε & gt ; 10 ). particularly , ng - 18 gels absorbed large amounts of chlorinated solvents such as chloroform ( q = 35 on ng - 18 - 1 %) and carbon tetrachloride ( q = 36 ). moreover , ng - 18 swelled in a moderate amount of solvents such as ether ( diethylether : q = 12 , thf : q = 17 ), aromatic compounds ( benzene : q = 21 , toluene : q = 22 ), and aliphatic reagents ( hexane : q = 14 , cyclohexane : q = 20 ). in more polar solvents , such as water , dmso , alcohols ( methanol , ethanol , isopropanol , and 1 - octanol ), ketones ( acetone and mibk ), and acetonitrile , ng - 18 didn &# 39 ; t swell at all ( q & lt ; 1 ). also , enhancing swelling ability by reducing the cross linker density was attempted . reducing the feed ratio of the crosslinker to the monomer from 1 mol % to 0 . 1 mol % enhanced the swelling ratio . however , the gels less than 0 . 2 mol % crosslinker density were too soft to separate excess solvent and swelling degree could not be accurately measured . ng - 18 - 0 . 5 % indicated the same tendency as ng - 18 - 1 % and had a higher swelling degree than ng - 18 - 1 %. these swelling behaviors of ng - 18 gels essentially depend on the compatibility of the polymer chain with the media . ng - 18 didn &# 39 ; t allow penetration of the highly polar molecules into the polymer networks , while non - polar solvents were absorbed . subsequently , temperature dependence on the swelling degree with ng - 18 - 1 % gel was examined in fig7 . the temperature was changed from 20 ° c . to 40 , 60 , and 0 ° c . successively , and the variety of solvents is the same as ones used in swelling degree test at 25 ° c . also , the sample cooled from 25 ° c . to 0 ° c . was studied to investigate the influence of thermal temperature changes during the heating process for swelling behavior , which is represented as ( 25 →) 0 ° c . the comparison between ( 60 →) 0 ° c . and ( 25 →) 0 ° c . was summarized in fig8 . the results in fig7 were categorized as follows : 1 ) in the following solvents swelling degree did not change in both heating and cooling processes : water , dmso , methanol , ethanol , isopropanol , acetone , acetonitrile , carbon tetrachloride , and cyclohexane . 2 ) whereas the q value didn &# 39 ; t change by heating a maximum of 25 wt % of the following solvents was dislodged from the gel in cooling process : thf , diethylether , dichloromethane , chloroform , benzene , toluene , and hexane . 3 ) the swelling degree increased by heating , but was almost the same by cooling in the solvents 1 - octanol and mibk . the second category is especially remarkable because it showed the changes of swelling degree and the color change from transparent to opaque by cooling to 0 ° c . these transition behaviors are attributable to crystallization of long - alkyl chain among stearylacrylate . it is expected that this ability can be utilized to develop a voc recycling system composed of both uptake and ejection . on the other hand , the transitions in the third category were irreversible as shown in fig8 . additionally , in order to determine the time dependence on the swelling degree of ng - 18 gels in thf , the swelling ratio was determined as a function of time . fig9 shows the time required for each gel to reach the equilibrium swelling degree . a cubic dry gel ( ng - 18 - 1 %, - 0 . 5 %), 5 mm on a side , was placed in a vial with excess thf at 25 ° c . the kinetics of the swelling behavior was examined by fitting the data to lagergren pseudo - first and pseudo second order kinetic equations [ 20 - 22 ]: the values of the first and second order rate constants obtained through the linearization of equations 3 and 4 are included in table 1 , along with the values of the regression coefficient , r 2 , which describes the correlation between graphed points with one being the best possible correlation and zero being the worst . a second order kinetic equation better describes the swelling behavior of ng - 18 gels because the regression coefficient is closer to one . critical solution temperature was determined for swollen ng - 18 - 1 % in thf . fig1 shows the result obtained at 700 nm . the swollen gel is relatively transparent , while the collapsed gel is opaque . thus , the transmittance values sharply change when the gel is collapsed . the transmittance values were plotted against temperature to obtain approximate critical temperature in both the heating and cooling processes . transition temperature results in 6 . 6 ° c . in the cooling process and 12 . 4 ° c . in the heating process . this hysteresis was due to supercooling phenomenon on the cooling process . this transition process is different from n - isopropylacrylamide ( nipam ) in water , depending on the crystallization of long alkyl chain among stearylacrylate unit . the cyclic swelling degree and transmittance studies were performed in order to investigate the reversibility and reproducibility of the swelling behavior . the procedures were followed for five cycles for ng - 18 - 1 % gels and the results are shown in fig1 . the gel appears to be stable and retains its transition characteristics even after five cycles . in other words , this transition is reversible and non - destructive for the gel network . the change of transmittance is very fast and the color change occurs in less than 30 min , but the change of swelling degree was slow , taking more than 24 h . this means that the color change is part of the swelling process but the color change is not equivalent to the change of swelling degree . the cyclic swelling degree was also performed with the solvent cyclohexane . the procedures were followed for 3 cycles for ng - 18 - 1 % gels and the results are shown in fig1 . the gel is stable after three cycles . cyclohexane is more environmentally benign than thf ( appendix b ), and shows a similar swelling degree ( q = 16 for cyclohexane and q = 17 for thf ). further testing of additional cycles will be carried out during the subsequent phases of this research . the first breaking point is 0 . 167 n in ng - 18 - 1 % and about 1n in ng - 18 - 0 . 5 %. compared to eg - 18 , ng - 18 gels are much stronger ( fig1 ). oil absorption was tested with both ng - 18 gels in toluene and in thf . the results of the tests with ng - 18 - x with swollen in thf are shown in fig1 - 15 . it was determined that ng - 18 - 1 % in thf was the best performer in this category because of its high swelling degree , good recyclability , the high oil and alumina absorption properties . thf is also a relatively low - or non - toxic and environmentally friendly solvent . ng - 18 - 0 . 5 % gel was not able to clean all of the alumina powder and oil . along with metal coupons , ng - 18 gels were tested on painted coupons and stainless steel parts with bolts , the results of which are shown in the appendix c . the painted coupons did not show any signs of peeling , and the bolts and flat coupons were cleaned almost as well as using solvent by itself . temperature did change the swelling degree of ng - 18 - 1 % in 1 - octanol , methylisobutylketone , and sae - 30 oil when heating from 20 ° c . to 40 or 60 ° c . ( fig7 ). even if they were cooled to 0 ° c ., however , they did not collapse . in addition to testing performed on metal coupons , field samples obtained from portsmouth naval shipyard , portsmouth , n . h . these parts include threaded sail adjustment screws , hydraulic valve stems , and miscellaneous nuts and washers . some of these tested parts are shown in fig1 a - 17 h . the samples consisted of large bolts and nuts approximately four to six inches long . rusted materials can be cleaned of grease and oil , but not of rust , because rusting is a chemical process and not a physical process . rusted parts in general are discarded . the grease absorption capabilities of ng - 18 gels were comparable to trichloroethylene all showing greater than 99 % absorption capabilities . as shown in fig1 - 19 , ng - 18 - 0 . 5 % outperformed the tce in two of three trials . ng - 18 - 1 % showed a greater cleaning power than ng - 18 - 0 . 5 % but had less grease absorption . this could be prevented further rinsing with ethanol immediately after cleaning if necessary . the recyclability of ng - 18 1 % gel for surface cleaning is illustrated in fig2 . this process is pending patent application [ 19 ]. the recyclability was tested by five consecutive oil absorption - desorption processes ( fig2 - 22 ). the swelling degree of the gel in each step was not measured because the initial weight of the gel can change due to addition of oil and particulates . instead , the amount of absorbed oil squeezed out by the collapsed gel was weighed in each step . the weight of the particulates and thf were accounted for by filtration , and evaporation , respectively . the cleaning property of ng - 18 - 1 % gel was maintained at & gt ; 99 wt % even after five cleaning cycles . by cooling , a solution containing particulate , thf , and oil was removed from the gel . the particles were removed by filtration , and 10 - 25 % thf could be evaporated , recollected and recycled . both thf and tce are considered highly toxic in liquid form . thf is not used in liquid form in this experiment . instead it is used in gel form , which will reduce exposure , and limit the health risks . cyclohexane or other solvents may be used to address any toxic or environmental concerns . in this study , we first demonstrated the synthesis and characterization of poly ( sa - co - egdma ) ( ng - 18 ) gels . the swelling characteristics of the gels were studied as a function of the solvent polarity and temperature , and the kinetics of swelling were also examined . volume transition via crystallization of the long alkyl chain was investigated by transmittance at 700 nm light with controlling temperature . moreover , the reversibility and reproducibility of the transition were studied by both swelling and transmittance with cyclic temperature change . these properties suggested the utility of ng - 18 gels as recyclable vocs absorbent materials . the gel system uses thf for swelling , however , cyclohexane or other benign solvents with similar swelling properties may also be used as a swelling agent . in particular cyclohexane is a good possibility with swelling ratio ( q ) of 20 . other solvents such as toluene or other non - polar solvents may also be used . we have not tested several other potential solvents during this phase of the research . based on the preliminary cost assessment the gel cleaning process appears to be costing a similar amount . the gel cleaning process has the advantage of avoiding emissions of hazardous air pollutants ( haps ) and volatile organic compounds ( vocs ). further research to improve the neutral gel systems with increased swelling properties and recyclability are recommended . optimization of the gel synthesis , cleaning process and kinetics at room temperature is recommended . it will be understood that many additional changes in the details , materials , procedures and arrangement of parts , which have been herein described and illustrated to explain the nature of the invention , may be made by those skilled in the art within the principle and scope of the invention as expressed in the appended claims . moreover , the terms “ about ,” “ substantially ” or “ approximately ” as used herein may be applied to modify any quantitative representation that could permissibly vary without resulting in a change in the basic function to which it is related . it should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily to scale ; instead , emphasis has been placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention . the following bibliography provides citations to the references cited in the above text . the references are provided merely to clarify the description of the present invention and citation of a reference either in the bibliography below or in the specification above is not an admission that any such reference is “ prior art ” to the invention described herein . 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