Ehsan Pakdaman - Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum, Gas, and Petrochemical Engineering, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, Iran
Shahriar Osfouri - Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum, Gas, and Petrochemical Engineering, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, Iran
Reza Azin - Department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum, Gas, and Petrochemical Engineering, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, Iran
Khodabakhsh Niknam - Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, Iran.

Gilsonite is a natural fossil resource; gilsonite or natural bitumen is also known as natural asphalt. In this study, natural gilsonite becomes hydrophilic by its reaction to a mixture of sulfuric acid and nitric acid and then, its size reduced to nanoscale using planetary ball mill process under argon atmosphere. The hydrophilic gilsonite was characterized using FT-IR, FE-SEM, and dynamic light scattering techniques. All experiments showed that the characteristics of hydrophilic gilsonite were different from characteristics of natural gilsonite due to surface modification. The hydrophilic gilsonite was grinded using mechanical alloying process that performed in a planetary ball mill machine. The weight ratio of steel balls to hydrophilic gilsonite is 10:1, and the rotation rate of the vial is 360 rpm. Milling times of 80 and 100 h are selected. Moreover, it is shown, with increasing milling time, the particle size decreases and finally reaches to a low value after 100 h of milling time.

Gilsonite, Hydrophilic, Nanoparticles, Planetary ball mill