Synthesis, Optimization and Performance Evaluation of a Biomass-based Environment-friendly Dust Suppressant

Synthesis, Optimization and Performance Evaluation of a Biomass-based Environment-friendly Dust Suppressant | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Synthesis, Optimization and Performance Evaluation of a Biomass-based Environment-friendly Dust Suppressant Zhichen Liu, Shihao Kan, Junru Ma, Tao Xu, Yanyu Che, Wenjie Liu, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5000826/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Although dust suppressants with diverse raw materials have been developed to cope with the increasingly urban dust pollution, the previous researches predominantly focused on the exploration of formulations for composite dust suppressants, and their environmental friendliness were seldom considered. In this study, an environment-friendly dust suppressant, which exhibited a favorable covering effect and excellent dust suppression performance, is prepared to address this research gap. Through single constituent experiments and orthogonal experiments, the types and optimal concentrations of binder, hygroscopic agent and surfactant are first determined. The optimal formulation of the dust suppressant includes 0.5% CMC-Na, 2% MgCl 2 and 0.15% sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate, 1% bentonite and 1% straw powder could be added as fillers to maximize the performance. The dust suppression effect is evaluated using a self-designed wind-erosion resistance device, revealing a favorable anti-erosion efficiency exceeding 94%. The hardness of the curing layer formed after spraying the dust suppressant can reach 169 N at a given thickness of 9.5 mm. Additionally, the composite dust suppressant is of non-biotoxicity and shows negligible corrosiveness to carbon steels (0.122 mm/a), while demonstrating its biodegradability in soil. The results indicate that the biomass-based dust suppressant in this study is promising for practical applications. dust pollution environment-friendly dust suppressant wind-erosion resistance test biomass Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 1. INTRODUCTION The issue of air pollution has gained significant prominence with the rapid advancement of urban industrialization. Particulate matter (PM) constitutes the primary component of urban air pollutants, with its main sources including fuel combustion, tailpipe emissions, industrial soot, dust and so on (Song et al., 2017 ). Dust is the portion of particulate matter less than 75 µm found on urban roads (Alshetty & S. M, 2021), and the impact of dust has been progressively intensifying with the construction and expansion of cities (Zhao et al., 2021 ). For example, the dust increased PM2.5 levels by 21–31% for traffic and 17–47% for urban development in southern Spain (Amato et al., 2014 ), and the contribution of road dust to PM10 raised from 7–26% in the Harbin city, China (Huang et al., 2010 ). Dust exhibits favorable scattering properties, contributing to a substantial reduction in visibility during severe air pollution episode and causing a huge traffic safety hazard (Tao et al., 2017 ). Also, dust may contain substances such as sulfides and nitrates, thereby contributing to serious ecological problems such as acid rain (Grennfelt et al., 2020 ). The fine particulate matter in dust enters the human body through the respiratory tract, leading to considerable lung deposition and giving rise to respiratory diseases (Khan & Strand, 2018 ; Lu et al., 2015 ) such as asthma, allergies and pneumoconiosis (Zhang et al., 2021 ). Furthermore, the toxic components contained in dust particles can be harmful to the cardiovascular system. Therefore, the control on dust pollution in populated area is significantly important. At present, the prevailing methods for dust control encompass water spraying, covering physically with a dust-proof net and using chemical dust suppressants (Hamdan & Kavazanjian, 2016 ). In practice, the high evaporation rate of water and hydrophobicity of dust result in insufficient inhibition of spraying water (Zhou et al., 2018 ), while dust-proof nets not only incur higher cost but also have the potential to induce secondary pollution. Therefore, chemical dust suppressants with long-lasting effect and simple operation become an efficient measure to control dust pollution (Nie et al., 2022 ). According to the action mechanism, dust suppressant can be divided into single-function dust suppressant (wetting dust suppressant, condensed dust suppressant and adhesive dust suppressant) and composite dust suppressant (Fan et al., 2018 ). The efficacy of former is often constrained in complex dust environments, while composite dust suppressants can simultaneously realize multiple functions, such as water retention, wetting, and adhesion by incorporating a variety of functional raw materials together. Researchers usually choose polymers with long molecular branches as binders to make the particles combine with each other to form larger agglomerates (Wang et al., 2023 ; Zhou et al., 2018 ), and add surfactants to change the wettability of the dust surface and improve the dust capture efficiency (Yan et al., 2020 ). Furthermore, the addition of inorganic salts hygroscopic agents ensures that the dust continues to draw water from the surrounding environment after the dust suppressant is sprayed, increasing the density of the dust (Chao et al., 2022 ). Huang et al. ( 2019 ) used sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-Na) as a binder, acrylamide as a hygroscopic agent, and fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether as a surfactant to prepare a composite dust suppressant, which could effectively inhibit the dust produced by copper mine transportation. To mitigate the dust pollution at construction sites, Xu & Pei ( 2017 ) prepared an energy-saving and economical dust suppressant with calcium magnesium acetate and glycerol as the main raw materials and sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) as the surfactant. With the growing emphasis on environmental awareness, dust suppressant formulations are gradually shifting towards bio-nontoxicity, as Wu et al. ( 2020b ) prepared a biological dust suppressant using urease extracted from soybeans. Moreover, the semi-interpenetrating network structure dust suppressant was prepared by adding natural polyhydroxyl materials such as sodium alginate, which could form a continuous protective film on the surface of dust and reduce water evaporation (Wu et al., 2020a ). Despite the expanding range of raw material choices, previous researches on composite dust suppressants primarily focused on the formulation improvement and optimization, and very few reports discussed their ecological and environmental impacts. This study develops a new type of dust suppressant, which contains non-toxic main constituents such as CMC-Na, MgCl 2 , and SDBS, and readily available rice straw powders were used as filler to maximize the performance for dust suppression, and to enhance the ecological compatibility of the as-prepared material. The optimal formulation of the composite dust suppressant was determined through single constituent experiments and orthogonal tests. The dust suppression effect of the resultant suppressant was accessed by using a self-designed wind-erosion resistance evaluation device, while a series of experiments were carried out to evaluate its ecological compatibility. 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS 2.1. Chemicals and Material Preparation All chemicals were of analytical grade and purchased from the Sinopharm Chemical Reagent, China. The bentonite as a thickening agent was purchased from the Shanghai Shisihewei Chemical Co., Ltd. The rice straw biomass, used as fillers, were obtained from the Jinhe Agriculture Co., Ltd. The sandy loam soil was employed to produce simulated sample for experimental tests. Additional information about the pretreatment of biomass and soils for simulated sample production can be found in Text S1 in the Supplementary Materials. 2.2. Testing of Dust Suppressant 2.2.1. Measurement of Wind Erosion Resistance A self-designed wind-erosion resistance evaluation device was employed to measure the dust suppression effect. The structure of device is illustrated in Fig. 1 . The detailed experimental information could be found in Text S2 in the Supplementary Materials. The three-dimensional diagram of the device and the related pictures of the experiment are shown in Fig. S1 . The anti-erosion efficiency can be calculated using Eq. ( 1 ): $$\:W=\frac{\left(N-n\right)}{N}\times\:100\%\:$$ 1 where W is the anti-erosion efficiency, %; N is the count of dust particles in the dry soil sample after air blowing; and n is the count of dust particles in the experimental sample (spraying the dust suppressant solution) after blowing. 2.2.2. Measurement of Resistance to Evaporation The water loss rate allows to assess the dust suppressant’s water retention ability and evaluate its resistance to evaporation at elevated temperatures. The experimental procedure was as follows: a certain amount of soil sample was placed in a Petri dish; afterwards, the prepared dust suppressant was uniformly sprayed on the dust surface using a water can; finally, the Petri dish was transferred to a constant temperature chamber at 50℃ and taken out every 1 h for mass measurement. The water loss rate is the average of three repetitions and is calculated by Eq. ( 2 ). $$\:{W}_{e}=\frac{{W}_{b}-{W}_{i}}{{W}_{b}-{W}_{a}}\times\:100\%$$ 2 where W e is the water loss rate, %; W a is the initial mass of dry Petri dish and soil sample, g; W b is the total mass after spraying the dust suppressant, g; and W i is the mass of the Petri dish and soil sample at hour i , g. 2.2.3. Hygroscopicity Performance Test Hygroscopicity refers to the ability of a dust suppressant to absorb moisture, which was characterized through the moisture content. In this study, 70 g treated dust was added to the Petri dish and sprayed with the dust suppressant. The sample was left to be completely wetted and placed in a natural indoor environment for 72 h. The weight of the sample was determined at regular intervals. The Eq. ( 3 ) is for calculating the moisture content rate. $$\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:\:M=\frac{{m}_{i\:}-{m}_{1}-{m}_{2}}{{m}_{2}}\times\:100\%$$ 3 where M is the moisture content rate, %; m i is the mass of the Petri dish and soil sample at hour i , g; m 1 is the mass of the Petri dish, g; m 2 is the mass of the dry soil sample, g. 2.2.4. Measurement of Hardness and Thickness of Curing Layers After spraying a certain amount of dust suppressant solution on the soil surface, a hard curing layer can form. The curing layer was then taken from the top of bulk soil sample, as shown in Fig. S2a, and the hardness of curing layer was roughly evaluated by a 50-g weight impact experiment (see Fig. S3), in which the curing layer was damaged by the weight. If the sample could withstand greater forces (i.e., the weight at a higher position) without breaking, it means that the sample was harder. The impact force can be calculated by Eq. ( 4 ): $$\:F=\frac{m\sqrt{2gℎ}}{t}$$ 4 where F is the impact force of falling weight, N; m is the mass of the weight, g; g is the gravitational acceleration, 9.8 m/s 2 ; h is the height of the weight, m; t is the impact time, 0.001 s. The curing layer for the test was prepared with the following procedure: dry soil (30 ± 0.05 g) was placed into a 75 mm diameter plastic dish and sprayed uniformly with a given amount of dust suppressant solution, and the curing layer was disassociated from the bulk soil sample for weight impact experiment. The height of weight, at which the curing layer crushed, was recorded to assess the hardness. The sample before the weight impact experiment was denoted as a general sample, while the crushed one after the impact was denoted as a broken sample (see the example in Fig. S2b in the Supplementary Materials). The thickness of the curing layer was measured with a straightedge, as shown in Fig. S4. Four random points along the circumference of the curing layer were measured and averaged value was reported. 2.2.5. Surfactant Property Test The effect of surfactant was evaluated by an infiltration experiment. During the experiment, 15 g soil sample was loaded into plastic centrifuge tubes with the same volume (15 mL). Then 2 mL of the dust suppressant solution was transferred into the centrifuge tube. The wetting depth of the dust suppressant within 60 s was measured. The infiltration velocity was used to assess the wetting property of the solution, which is calculated by Eq. ( 5 ). $$\:V=\frac{\varDelta\:ℎ}{60}$$ 5 where V is the infiltration velocity, mm/s; ∆h is the wetting depth, mm. 2.2.6. Characterization of Physical and Chemical Properties The NDJ-8S rotary viscometer was applied to test the viscosity of the dust suppressant when the temperature in the solution was held at 25°C, as stated in the GB/T10247-2008 standard Viscosity Measurement. The static droplet method was used to measure the contact angle on the soil sample surface, with the help of JF99A contact angle analyzer. The pH of solution was determined using the Delta 320-S digital pH meter. The microscopic surface morphology of dust suppressant particles was observed by the MIRA3 scanning electron microscope. 2.3. Ecological Compatibility Test 2.3.1. Plant Growth Test Plant growth experiments were designed to assess whether the soil was toxic to green plants such as Pakchoi seeds after the use of the dust suppressant. The amount of dust suppressant applied in the experiment was 1, 2 and 3 L/m 3 , and a blank control group was set up. Each group of Pakchoi was planted in Petri dish filled with 30 g soil. The Pakchoi seeds were evenly placed on top of the soil, and the growth of plants was recorded at 3rd d, 7th d and 14th d after germination. After 14 days of growth, the Pakchoi was dried at 75°C to constant weight to determine the biomass and bud length. 2.3.2. Biodegradability Test The dust suppressant solution was dried in a drying oven at 105 ℃ until the mass remained unchanged, then collected the dried solid and compressed into a tablet. A certain amount of soil sample was placed in a Petri dish, and the tablet was buried 5 cm below the surface of the soil and recorded the mass periodically. The procedure was repeated three times and the results were averaged. The schematic of the biodegradability test was shown in Fig. S5. The mass loss rate was calculated using Eq. ( 6 ). $$\:\:\mu\:=\frac{{M}_{0}-{M}_{1}}{{M}_{0}}\times\:100\%$$ 6 where M 0 is the initial mass of dried dust suppressant, mg; M 1 is the mass of dust suppressant after a certain time, mg; µ is the mass loss rate of dust suppressant. 2.3.3. Corrosion Test Carbon steel was selected as the experimental material for corrosion test (see Fig. S6 in the Supplementary Materials). The uniform corrosion performance test was performed according to the “Laboratory uniform corrosion full immersion Test method for Metallic Materials” (Chinese Standard, JB/T7901-1999, 1999). The sample size was 50 mm length, 25 mm width and 5 mm height, and the test time was 72 h. The corrosion rate was expressed by Eq. ( 7 ). $$\:\alpha\:=\frac{{8.76\times\:{10}^{7}\times\:(M}_{1}-{M}_{2})}{STD}$$ 7 where ɑ is the corrosion rate, mm/a; M 1 is the sample mass before test, g; M 2 is the sample mass after test, g; S is the total area of sample, cm 2 ; T is the test time, h; and D is the density of material, kg/m 3 . 2.4. Design of Orthogonal Experiment The design of the orthogonal experimental scheme followed the principle that each level of each factor should be combined an equal number of times with each level of other factors, irrespective of the potential interaction between factors (Wang et al., 2021 ). In this study, the major constituents, including binder (ADH), surfactant (SAA), hygroscopic agent (SAP), were further optimized. The best composition for the dust suppressant was obtained by using the pH value, water loss rate, infiltration velocity, anti-erosion efficiency as the investigated parameters. The orthogonal experiment was carried out in the same way as the single constituent experiment. The formula table was obtained using an L 9 (3 4 ) orthogonal table, as shown in Table 1 . Table 1 The level table of each factor. Level Factors ADH SAP SAA 1 0.05% 0.5% 0.10% 2 0.25% 1.0% 0.15% 3 0.50% 2.0% 0.20% 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1. Main Constituents of the Dust Suppressant 3.1.1. Single Constituent Experiment The main role of the binder is to bond the fine dust to form large agglomerates, so as to increase the dust mass and shorten the settling time of fugitive dust to enhance the effect of the dust suppressant (Huang et al., 2021 ). Sodium alginate (ADH-1), sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (ADH-2), sodium polyacrylate (ADH-3) and sodium carboxymethyl starch (ADH-4) were selected as the preliminary binder. The performance of each binder was evaluated by the hardness and thickness of the curing layer and the anti-erosion efficiency. The results of different binders with 0.5% concentration are shown in Fig. 2 . According to Fig. 2 a, the order of hardness is ADH-1>ADH-2>ADH-3>ADH-4. ADH-1 performed well in terms of hardness, but the curing layer formed was only 1.8 mm thickness, while ADH-2 formed a curing layer with good impact resistance and a thickness of 4.6 mm, achieving an effective coverage of the underlying loose soil. The anti-erosion efficiencies of curing layer before and after weight impact experiments (i.e., the general sample and broken sample) are shown in Fig. 2 b. ADH-2 had a better wind erosion resistance, and the anti-erosion efficiencies were all over 90%. The anti-evaporation performance for ADH-2 was the best in all samples for the first 3 h of the experiment (Fig. S7). Therefore, ADH-2 was selected as the binder and was studied with six concentration gradients of 0.05%, 0.15%, 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75%, and 1.00% to explore the effect of concentration. The viscosity of the solution exhibited an increase trend as the binder concentrations was raised (Fig. 2 c), but the hardness and thickness of the curing layer remained almost constant in the high concentration range (Fig. S8). Below a concentration of 0.25%, a notable increase in anti-erosion efficiency was observed, then it stabilized at approximately 90%. (Fig. 2 d). It was found that excessively high binder concentrations posed drawbacks such as hindered dissolution during application and increased cost (Liang et al., 2022 ), so the concentration range was set from 0.05–0.50%. Surfactant can reduce the surface tension of dust suppressant solution and make the dust particles wet effectively, which accelerates the speed for dust infiltration (Shaban et al., 2020 ; Siyal et al., 2020 ; Xiong & Zhang, 2015 ). Sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SAA-1), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SAA-2) and hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (SAA-3) were selected as raw materials for investigation. According to Fig. 3 a, it can be found that the infiltration velocity of the three surfactants in the soil column increased with concentration and eventually leveled off, and the infiltration velocity of SAA-1 was always greater than the other two surfactants. This shows that SAA-1 has the best infiltration performance. The contact angle (Fig. 3 b) and viscosity (Fig. S9) of different concentrations of SAA-1 were further measured, and it was found that both of them showed a constant reduction with the increasing SAA-1 concentration, and the rate of angle decrease exhibited a deceleration when the concentration surpassed 0.15%. When the SAA-1 concentration was 0.20%, the thickness of the curing layer could reach 7.7 mm (Fig. S10). Therefore, SAA-1 was selected as the surfactant and its concentration range was determined to be from 0.10–0.20% in light of its experimental results of contact angle and cost. When the ambient humidity is high, hygroscopic agents can absorb moisture from the air and help increase the water content and relative density of the dust so that it will not be easy to suspend (Huang et al., 2019 ). Magnesium chloride (SAP-1), calcium chloride (SAP-2) and sodium chloride (SAP-3) were selected as the hygroscopic agents. The performance of each hygroscopic agent was evaluated by the moisture content rate and its increment of soil samples. The changes in moisture content rate over time are shown in Fig. 3 c, it can be found that SAP-1 demonstrated the best hygroscopic performance. As the SAP-1 concentration increased, the water content of the dust continued to improve (see in Fig. 3 d). When the SAP-1 concentration increased from 0.0–2.0%, the rate of water content reduction slowed down significantly. However, with the further increase in concentration, the rate of moisture loss from samples did not change substantially, and the final moisture content stabilized at about 6%, which indicated that the moisture absorption capacity of the hygroscopic agent was limited and a continuous increase in concentration would cause wastage. Therefore, SAP-1 was selected as the best hygroscopic agent, and its concentration range was set from 0.5–2.0%. 3.1.2. Orthogonal Experiment Based on the results obtained from the single constituent experiments, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose was selected as the binder, sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate as the surfactant, and magnesium chloride as the hygroscopic agent. An orthogonal table was designed according to the optimal concentration range. The results of the nine sets of experiments are shown in Table S1 . The K value refers to the average value of parameters obtained using the same index factor at the same level. The range R is the difference between the maximum and minimum values of K, reflecting the influence of various factor on the result (Zhang et al., 2018a ). Through the range analysis of the test data of each index, the primary and secondary order of each factor and the optimal combination can be obtained (shown in Table 2 ). It can be seen from Table 2 that the surfactant concentration factor has the maximal range and the order of factors affecting the formula is C > B > A when the pH value is evaluated. To meet the requirements of practical application, the pH value of dust suppressant is generally neutral, so the optimal combination is A 1 B 3 C 1 . In terms of water loss rate, the three factors affecting the formulation are B > A > C and the best combination is A 3 B 3 C 2 . The range of hygroscopic agents is the largest, which means it has a major influence on the water loss rate. The greater the concentration is, the lower the water loss rate. When using the infiltration velocity as the parameter, the binder concentration factor has the largest range, with a specific order of A > C > B. The faster the infiltration velocity is, the better the wetting effect on the dust. Therefore, the optimal combination is A 1 B 3 C 3 . Regarding the anti-erosion efficiency, the binder has the most significant effect and the hygroscopic agent corresponds to the smallest range, so the best combination is A 3 B 3 C 3 . The effect of the binder on anti-erosion efficiency is the most significant, displaying clear enhancement with increasing concentration. Hence, the most suitable binder concentration is 0.5%. As for the hygroscopic agent, the highest concentration was selected in all optimal combinations so the concentration should be set to 2.0%. Surfactants have notable effects on pH and permeation rate. As the concentration increases, both the permeation rate and pH level exhibit an upward trend. In order to keep the pH value from being too high while ensuring the outstanding wetting and permeation ability, the concentration of surfactant should be set to 0.15%. In summary, the optimized formulation for the main constituents of the dust suppressant (DSF) includes 0.5% CMC-Na, 2.0% MgCl 2 and 0.15% SDBS. Table 2 Level average and range. pH Water loss rate (%) Penetration velocity (mm/s) Anti-erosion efficiency (%) K1 7.95 8.08 7.44 13.10 15.48 12.44 0.32 0.23 0.18 58.10 75.82 73.71 K2 7.96 7.99 7.77 12.01 12.51 11.84 0.22 0.23 0.24 82.75 78.76 78.17 K3 8.03 7.87 8.73 11.30 8.43 12.13 0.17 0.25 0.28 92.72 78.99 81.69 R 0.07 0.21 1.29 1.80 7.05 0.60 0.15 0.02 0.10 34.62 3.17 7.99 3.2. Fillers for the Composite Dust Suppressant 3.2.1. Fillers for Dust Suppressants The main component of bentonite (BT) is montmorillonite, which has a complex crystal structure with an octahedral alumina sheet sandwiched between two tetrahedral silica sheets (Jiang et al., 2019 ). The special layered structure gives bentonite unique hydrophilicity, swelling and heat resistance (Park et al., 2016 ), allowing it to be widely used as a thickener. The experimental results obtained by adding different concentrations of bentonite into the preliminary formulation are shown in Fig. 4 . With the increase of bentonite concentration, the viscosity became higher within the available range and the anti-evaporation performance improved significantly. Fig. S11 showed that the addition of bentonite did not significantly alter the thickness of the curing layer, which remained approximately 8.5 mm. This observation indicated that bentonite did not have a large impact on the permeability. Meanwhile, when the bentonite concentration was increased from 1.0–2.0% (Fig. S12), the anti-erosion efficiency was maintained at about 94% with limited improvement. Therefore, the concentration of bentonite was set to 1.0% by combining the experimental results and economic efficiency. Based on the existing formulation, biomass powder (BP) was selected to enhance the covering effect. The dust suppressant solution on the soil surface bonded the biomass fibers together and covered the lower seam completely, providing a good dust suppression effect. As shown in Fig. 4 c, after adding biomass powder, the surface of the curing layer consisted of both soil particles and straw biomass. With the increase of biomass content, the thickness of the curing layer had an obvious increment and the hardness also enhanced significantly due to the enhanced binding effect of straw biomass (Fig. 4 d). When the mass fraction of straw powder exceeded 1.0%, both hardness and thickness tended to stabilize. Therefore, 1.0% of straw powder was added as a filler in the dust suppressant. The dust suppressant solution developed in the laboratory was yellowish-brown, closely resembling to the color of bare soil, so it was hard to observe the dust suppression effect with the naked eye after spraying. Therefore, the addition of environmentally friendly color paste or pigment was considered to realize the visualization of dust suppression effect. Common green pigments in the market, including natural chlorophyll, organic phthalocyanine green and inorganic iron oxide green, were selected as raw material alternatives, and the addition amount was controlled at 0.1%-0.3%. The results are shown in Fig. 4 e. The three pigments had good compatibility with dust suppressants and better adsorption of dust, also showed good visual effects in practical engineering applications (Fig. S13). Natural chlorophyll was too expensive to be used as the pigment of this product, and iron oxide green contained heavy metal elements, conflicting with the principle of environmental protection. Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, phthalocyanine green was chosen as the auxiliary pigment. 3.2.2. Physical and Chemical Properties of the Optimal Dust Suppressant The physical and chemical properties of the dust suppressant prepared with the optimal formulation are shown in Table 3 . Viscosity is the most intuitive parameter to evaluate the bonding properties of dust suppressant, which reflects the degree of movement of molecular layers moving over each other (Medeiros et al., 2012 ). As the viscosity of the solution increases, the molecular movement becomes more restricted, resulting in a more effective dust suppression effect. The viscosity of the developed dust suppressant is 57.2 mPa·s. As a result, it has the obvious bonding effect of condensing dust particles together to increase their size, which not only ensures the anti-erosion efficiency, but also facilitates mixing, spraying and settling. The pH value of dust suppressant is 8.55, which makes it weakly alkaline. This pH value is in line with green principles of developed products and does not excessively change the performance of material and the original pH level of the soil. The contact angle serves as an indicator of the dust suppressant’s wetting performance to some extent. The results show that the contact angle of the dust suppressant solution on the dust surface is 40.791°, indicating that the agent can interact with the dust well and exhibit good wettability and permeability. Table 3 Physical and chemical properties of the optimal dust suppressant. Number Viscosity(mPa·s) pH Contact angle (°) 1 56.6 8.62 42.138 2 57.8 8.31 40.144 3 57.3 8.73 40.091 Average 57.2 8.55 40.791 Aiming to observe the impact of dust suppressant on solidification and binding effects of soil samples, scanning electron microscope was used to examine the surface morphologies of the original soil samples, samples after spraying water and the dust suppressant. Figure 5 a and b shows the surface of the original soil samples. It was observed that the surface was quite smooth, with dust particles displaying significant variation in shape and size. In this case, the soil was susceptible to the wind, causing dust dispersion pollution. After water spraying, we found that there was no obvious morphological change on the surface of soil samples. The dust particles demonstrated a state of being lightly moistened by water and their boundaries were clearly defined, exhibiting a loose distribution without agglomeration (see Fig. 5 c and d). Figure 5 e and f shows the SEM images of the soil samples treated by the dust suppressant solution. The polymer material of dust suppressant covered the original soil surface and formed a layer of dense hardened shell, which bound the loose particles together, resulting in a close accumulation of soil particles. The increase in both size and weight of dust particles made them hard to be dispersed by air flow, leading to a desirable dust suppression effect (Li et al., 2022 ; Zhang et al., 2018b ). 3.3. Ecological Impact Tests 3.3.1. Biological Toxicity Test on Dust Suppressant In order to investigate the biological toxicity of the optimal dust suppressant on soil, Pakchoi seeds were planted in soil sprayed with dust suppressant and pure water under the same light source, temperature and humidity conditions. As shown in Fig. 6 a, during the initial stage of cultivation, the germination rate of Pakchoi sprayed with water was roughly equivalent to that of the dust suppressant solution sprayed with 1 L/m 2 , but decreased as the amount of spraying increased. After 14 days, the germination rate of soil samples sprayed with dust suppressant exceeded that of those sprayed with water, and the bud length and dry weight of all groups were close to each other (Fig. 6 b). At the beginning of the experiment, the spraying of the dust suppressant caused the soil surface to slab and solidify, resulting an increase in the resistance of the Pakchoi to spring out of the soil, and thus the seed germination rate on the 3rd day was lower compared to the water spraying group. Relevant studies have shown that polymeric organic compounds can use their hydrophilic properties to slow down soil water loss (Tian et al., 2020 ). On the other hand, they could improve soil aeration, optimize soil structure and reduce nutrient wastage (Tian et al., 2019 ). Meanwhile, the inorganic salts contained in dust suppressants played an important role in plant growth, accelerating cell division and promoting seed maturation (Adetunji et al., 2020 ). In summary, both experimental results and relevant theoretical studies proved that the developed dust suppressant had no negative impact on the growth of plants in the soil. 3.3.2. Analysis of Biodegradability of the Optimal Dust Suppressant Figure 7 shows the degradation profile of the dust suppressant tablet. As shown in Fig. 7 , the percentage of the mass loss rate gradually increased over time. From 0 to 15 days, the sample tablet degraded at a slow rate, reaching a mass loss rate of about 2%. Then, the rate of mass loss was essentially stable from 15 to 36 days, eventually reaching a loss rate of about 7%. The macromolecular structure of cellulose was decomposed by cellulase and microorganisms in the soil during this period (Abe et al., 2021 ; Xu et al., 2021 ). Furthermore, the dust suppressant comprised approximately 33.9% organic constituents, while the remaining are stable inorganic substances, so the observation indicates that the dust suppressant showed excellent performance in the degradable range. After that, the degradation curve leveled off and finally reached 7.9% after 48 days, which was only 0.9% higher than that of 36 days. The above shows that the dust suppressant possessed a certain level of stability and limited mass loss. Therefore, the prepared dust suppressant could effectively work for a long time; meanwhile it partially biodegradable in the soil. 3.3.3. Analysis of Corrosivity of the Dust Suppressant The uniform corrosion results of the dust suppressant are shown in Table 4 . The uniform corrosion rate of the dust suppressant for carbon steels (0.1220 mm/a) is lower than that of distilled water (0.1721 mm/a). In addition, after 72 h of complete immersion in distilled water, the carbon steel showed a grooved surface, while the corrosion area was larger and darker (Fig. 8 d-f). After soaking in the dust suppressant solution for 72 h, the surface of carbon steel appeared scattered pitting, with a small area of corrosion spots and a lighter color (Fig. 8 g-i). Water-soluble polymer organic substances can be adsorbed on the metal surface to form a barrier layer with a certain thickness, playing a role in delaying corrosion (Berdimurodov et al., 2022 ; Haba et al., 2019 ). The developed dust suppressant used sodium carboxymethyl cellulose as a binder, which effectively separated the metal from the corrosive environment and produced an effect of corrosion inhibition (Wu et al., 2020b ), thus preventing the equipment from rapid corrosion. Table 4 Results of the corrosion rate test via immersion of carbon steel specimen. Samples Number Area/cm 2 Mass loss/g Corrosion rate(mm/a) Average corrosion rate(mm/a) Distilled water 1 25 0.0276 0.1744 0.1721 2 25 0.0253 0.1599 3 25 0.0288 0.1820 The dust suppressant 4 25 0.0187 0.1182 0.1220 5 25 0.0208 0.1315 6 25 0.0184 0.1163 4. CONCLUSION In the present study, a biomass-based dust suppressant with low cost, environmental friendliness and significant dust suppression effect was developed. The raw material composition was determined through single constituent and orthogonal experiments, followed by the incorporation of fillers and pigments aiming at practical application. The following conclusions were obtained. 1)The types and appropriate concentration ranges of constituents for the composite dust suppressant were determined. 0.05%~0.50% of CMC-Na was selected as the binder, 0.5%~2.0% of MgCl 2 as the hygroscopic agent, and 0.10%~0.20% of SDBS as the surfactant. 2)The orthogonal experiment showed the optimal formulation of the dust suppressant: 0.5% CMC-Na, 2% MgCl 2 , 0.15% SDBS. 1% bentonite and 1% straw powder could be added as fillers to maximize the performance of the dust suppressant. 3) The performance test demonstrated that the prepared dust suppressant showed excellent wettability, permeability and anti-evaporation effect. The thickness of the curing layer formed after dust suppressant spraying is 8–9 mm, and the anti-erosion efficiency can reach more than 94%, indicating commendable wind erosion resistance. 4) The composite dust suppressant demonstrated non-biotoxicity and weak corrosivity on metals, and can be partially degraded by soil in a couple of months. Declarations Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Author Contribution Z. L. , W. L., X. Z. and X. M. prepared the figures, wrote the original draft and edited the manuscript text . S. K., J. M. , T. X. and Y. C. conducted expeirments and analyzed the results. All authors reviewed the manuscript. Acknowledgments This research has been financially sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52170169), and the grant from the Three Gorges Joint Fund for Innovative Development of Hubei Province (2023AFD193). Mrs. Zeng Xiang also thanks the financial support from the Jiangxi Province. References Abe MM, Branciforti MC, Brienzo M (2021) Biodegradation of Hemicellulose-Cellulose-Starch-Based Bioplastics and Microbial Polyesters. Recycling 6(1):22. http://doi.org/10.3390/recycling6010022 Adetunji AE, Sershen, Varghese B, Pammenter NW (2020) Effects of Inorganic Salt Solutions on Vigour, Viability, Oxidative Metabolism and Germination Enzymes in Aged Cabbage and Lettuce Seeds. Plants-Basel 9(9):1164. http://doi.org/10.3390/plants9091164 Alshetty D,S. M, S. N (2021) Urban characteristics and its influence on resuspension of road dust, air quality and exposure. 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Powder Technol 339:314–325. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2018.08.011 Zhao Z, Zhao Y, Hu X, Cheng W, Hou J, Song C (2021) Preparation and performance analysis of enteromorpha-based environmentally friendly dust suppressant. Powder Technol 393:323–332. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2021.07.071 Zhou L, Yang SY, Hu B, Yuan ZL, Wu H, Yang LJ (2018) Evaluating of the performance of a composite wetting dust suppressant on lignite dust. Powder Technol 339:882–893. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2018.08.081 Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryMaterial.docx floatimage1.jpeg Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5000826","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":350959978,"identity":"36ee6f77-1107-4b20-8759-88c8e0b6778f","order_by":0,"name":"Zhichen Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhichen","middleName":"","lastName":"Liu","suffix":""},{"id":350959979,"identity":"03c2480c-a2a9-491f-a86d-fae5689957a3","order_by":1,"name":"Shihao Kan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shihao","middleName":"","lastName":"Kan","suffix":""},{"id":350959980,"identity":"dfd600a9-f9ff-461c-bfac-1be8dd8fc01e","order_by":2,"name":"Junru Ma","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Junru","middleName":"","lastName":"Ma","suffix":""},{"id":350959981,"identity":"f557c4a0-dc2f-428e-9730-f6d7eeaa178f","order_by":3,"name":"Tao Xu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tao","middleName":"","lastName":"Xu","suffix":""},{"id":350959982,"identity":"6a9a53a9-eab1-416e-9bff-58081c54f1ea","order_by":4,"name":"Yanyu Che","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yanyu","middleName":"","lastName":"Che","suffix":""},{"id":350959983,"identity":"d8a2162c-f552-453b-9b35-d588161062c4","order_by":5,"name":"Wenjie Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Wenjie","middleName":"","lastName":"Liu","suffix":""},{"id":350959984,"identity":"c423a731-676f-4b6c-b6a4-3f42a83f16a6","order_by":6,"name":"Xiang Zeng","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Jiangxi Cimo Environmental Technology Ltd","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xiang","middleName":"","lastName":"Zeng","suffix":""},{"id":350959985,"identity":"a3aee974-65ba-4f3c-8165-e8ca2213cafd","order_by":7,"name":"Xuhui Mao","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAr0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACdgY2hg8MB0BMAyK1MDOwMc4gWQszD0la+JuZnz22bbuT2MDevE2CoeYOYS0Sh9nMjXPbniU28Bwrk2A49oywFgNmBjPp3G2HExskcswkGBsOE6OF/Zu0JUiL/BuitfCYSTOCbeEhUovEYZ5yw95/h43beNKKLRKOEaGFv71924MfZw7L9rMf3njjQw0RWuCADUQkkKBhFIyCUTAKRgEeAABJXzYOTdWNjwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Wuhan University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xuhui","middleName":"","lastName":"Mao","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-08-30 03:24:08","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5000826/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5000826/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":65724036,"identity":"2179f4fc-337b-41a6-8986-bc29d53f1bb0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-10-01 17:34:46","extension":"jpeg","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":74301,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eFront view of the self-designed wind-erosion resistance device.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5000826/v1/5373b4933744493d2d7d8d98.jpeg"},{"id":65724037,"identity":"2c00c9f1-3102-4bf7-a3f3-d90a9412fc4f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-10-01 17:34:46","extension":"jpeg","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":124218,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e(a) Hardness and thickness of the curing layer formed by different binders and (b) anti-erosion efficiency of the curing layer of soil samples. (c) Viscosity of dust suppressant solution with different ADH-2 concentrations (inset: curing layer hardness for different ADH-2 concentrations). (d) Anti-erosion efficiency of the curing layers formed with different ADH-2 concentrations (all broken samples were obtained from general samples after weight impact experiment, as described in section 2.2.4.).\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage3.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5000826/v1/047eb29da6ca9ff8da6c5f86.jpeg"},{"id":65724753,"identity":"a3a0bee4-3dd5-4933-a38e-d63155a4ef2e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-10-01 17:50:46","extension":"jpeg","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":144119,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e(a) Infiltration velocity of different surfactants. (b) Contact angles of different concentrations of SAA-1. Variation curves of moisture content for different hygroscopic agents (c) and different concentrations of SAP-1(d).\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage4.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5000826/v1/f75e232a8dbe598ff677d2e7.jpeg"},{"id":65724038,"identity":"6674d7fc-3399-4d0f-8554-6d44795d66ea","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-10-01 17:34:46","extension":"jpeg","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":810769,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e(a) Viscosity curve of dust suppressant solution with different amounts of bentonite (BT) (inset: curing layer hardness). (b) Variation curves of water loss rate for different amounts of BT. (c) Image of curing layer surface by using the VHX digital microscope (upper: no biomass powder (BP); lower: with BP). (d) Hardness and thickness of the curing layer formed by adding different amounts of BP. (e) Coloring experiment results. DSF means the aforementioned optimized formulation for the main constituents.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage5.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5000826/v1/427ceeccc24923cddedbe979.jpeg"},{"id":65724617,"identity":"ce970975-be2d-4687-809b-7843f8a990f9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-10-01 17:42:46","extension":"jpeg","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":448615,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSEM photo of original soil sample (a, b), treated with water (c, d) and with the dust suppressant (e, f).\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage6.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5000826/v1/b91681f031465738c473fe03.jpeg"},{"id":65725087,"identity":"3aa23cf9-f3c7-4bfe-95f4-3e88833be1e2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-10-01 17:58:46","extension":"jpeg","order_by":6,"title":"Figure 6","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":248728,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e(a) Variation curves of seed germination rate with time. (b) Bud length and dry weight of Pakchoi after 14 d of cultivation. (c) Photographs of Pakchoi at 3 d, 7 d, 14 d and at the end of the experiment (from left to right: sprayed with water and sprayed with 1, 2 and 3 L/m\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e of dust suppressant solution).\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage7.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5000826/v1/56d35c39f348e2ebd4a881d3.jpeg"},{"id":65724043,"identity":"384af5ba-fcbd-4226-af81-1b53e2ae9bd4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-10-01 17:34:46","extension":"jpeg","order_by":7,"title":"Figure 7","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":28522,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eDegradation curve of the soil sample treated with the dust suppressant prepared with optimal formulation.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage8.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5000826/v1/77abb227033b9a917d2a33d8.jpeg"},{"id":65724620,"identity":"b6cd5ca1-6bd3-4d4f-a920-d467ed8f17a2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-10-01 17:42:47","extension":"jpeg","order_by":8,"title":"Figure 8","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":293944,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eThe image of carbon steel surface (a-c: raw carbon steels, d-f: immersion with distilled water for 72 h, g-i: immersion with the dust suppressant solution for 72 h).\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage9.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5000826/v1/5c87e8ee0e8de3eb61e0a6a2.jpeg"},{"id":65823990,"identity":"3be7f854-be7f-4e81-8f6d-f4a4f375d32b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-10-03 08:16:54","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":2992211,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5000826/v1/c76834db-cd92-4449-aa52-7a706bfcb583.pdf"},{"id":65724044,"identity":"c4ae4179-847a-4b9b-b815-ace8c0dea7fb","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-10-01 17:34:46","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":7986817,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryMaterial.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5000826/v1/ea6a6df1fc4b2d475605ec5e.docx"},{"id":65724039,"identity":"08f7604d-4059-4580-aa44-1cebcd10accd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-10-01 17:34:46","extension":"jpeg","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":734221,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5000826/v1/18aacdd87f987bdf8ed4d29c.jpeg"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Synthesis, Optimization and Performance Evaluation of a Biomass-based Environment-friendly Dust Suppressant","fulltext":[{"header":"1. INTRODUCTION","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe issue of air pollution has gained significant prominence with the rapid advancement of urban industrialization. Particulate matter (PM) constitutes the primary component of urban air pollutants, with its main sources including fuel combustion, tailpipe emissions, industrial soot, dust and so on (Song et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). Dust is the portion of particulate matter less than 75 \u0026micro;m found on urban roads (Alshetty \u0026amp; S. M, 2021), and the impact of dust has been progressively intensifying with the construction and expansion of cities (Zhao et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). For example, the dust increased PM2.5 levels by 21\u0026ndash;31% for traffic and 17\u0026ndash;47% for urban development in southern Spain (Amato et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e), and the contribution of road dust to PM10 raised from 7\u0026ndash;26% in the Harbin city, China (Huang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e). Dust exhibits favorable scattering properties, contributing to a substantial reduction in visibility during severe air pollution episode and causing a huge traffic safety hazard (Tao et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). Also, dust may contain substances such as sulfides and nitrates, thereby contributing to serious ecological problems such as acid rain (Grennfelt et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). The fine particulate matter in dust enters the human body through the respiratory tract, leading to considerable lung deposition and giving rise to respiratory diseases (Khan \u0026amp; Strand, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Lu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e) such as asthma, allergies and pneumoconiosis (Zhang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). Furthermore, the toxic components contained in dust particles can be harmful to the cardiovascular system. Therefore, the control on dust pollution in populated area is significantly important.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAt present, the prevailing methods for dust control encompass water spraying, covering physically with a dust-proof net and using chemical dust suppressants (Hamdan \u0026amp; Kavazanjian, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e). In practice, the high evaporation rate of water and hydrophobicity of dust result in insufficient inhibition of spraying water (Zhou et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e), while dust-proof nets not only incur higher cost but also have the potential to induce secondary pollution. Therefore, chemical dust suppressants with long-lasting effect and simple operation become an efficient measure to control dust pollution (Nie et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). According to the action mechanism, dust suppressant can be divided into single-function dust suppressant (wetting dust suppressant, condensed dust suppressant and adhesive dust suppressant) and composite dust suppressant (Fan et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). The efficacy of former is often constrained in complex dust environments, while composite dust suppressants can simultaneously realize multiple functions, such as water retention, wetting, and adhesion by incorporating a variety of functional raw materials together. Researchers usually choose polymers with long molecular branches as binders to make the particles combine with each other to form larger agglomerates (Wang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Zhou et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e), and add surfactants to change the wettability of the dust surface and improve the dust capture efficiency (Yan et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Furthermore, the addition of inorganic salts hygroscopic agents ensures that the dust continues to draw water from the surrounding environment after the dust suppressant is sprayed, increasing the density of the dust (Chao et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). Huang et al. (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e) used sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-Na) as a binder, acrylamide as a hygroscopic agent, and fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether as a surfactant to prepare a composite dust suppressant, which could effectively inhibit the dust produced by copper mine transportation. To mitigate the dust pollution at construction sites, Xu \u0026amp; Pei (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e) prepared an energy-saving and economical dust suppressant with calcium magnesium acetate and glycerol as the main raw materials and sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) as the surfactant. With the growing emphasis on environmental awareness, dust suppressant formulations are gradually shifting towards bio-nontoxicity, as Wu et al. (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020b\u003c/span\u003e) prepared a biological dust suppressant using urease extracted from soybeans. Moreover, the semi-interpenetrating network structure dust suppressant was prepared by adding natural polyhydroxyl materials such as sodium alginate, which could form a continuous protective film on the surface of dust and reduce water evaporation (Wu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020a\u003c/span\u003e). Despite the expanding range of raw material choices, previous researches on composite dust suppressants primarily focused on the formulation improvement and optimization, and very few reports discussed their ecological and environmental impacts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study develops a new type of dust suppressant, which contains non-toxic main constituents such as CMC-Na, MgCl\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e, and SDBS, and readily available rice straw powders were used as filler to maximize the performance for dust suppression, and to enhance the ecological compatibility of the as-prepared material. The optimal formulation of the composite dust suppressant was determined through single constituent experiments and orthogonal tests. The dust suppression effect of the resultant suppressant was accessed by using a self-designed wind-erosion resistance evaluation device, while a series of experiments were carried out to evaluate its ecological compatibility.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"2. MATERIALS AND METHODS","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.1. Chemicals and Material Preparation\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAll chemicals were of analytical grade and purchased from the Sinopharm Chemical Reagent, China. The bentonite as a thickening agent was purchased from the Shanghai Shisihewei Chemical Co., Ltd. The rice straw biomass, used as fillers, were obtained from the Jinhe Agriculture Co., Ltd. The sandy loam soil was employed to produce simulated sample for experimental tests. Additional information about the pretreatment of biomass and soils for simulated sample production can be found in Text S1 in the Supplementary Materials.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec4\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2. Testing of Dust Suppressant\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec5\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2.1. Measurement of Wind Erosion Resistance\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eA self-designed wind-erosion resistance evaluation device was employed to measure the dust suppression effect. The structure of device is illustrated in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e. The detailed experimental information could be found in Text S2 in the Supplementary Materials. The three-dimensional diagram of the device and the related pictures of the experiment are shown in Fig. \u003cspan refid=\"MOESM1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003eS1\u003c/span\u003e. The anti-erosion efficiency can be calculated using Eq.\u0026nbsp;(\u003cspan refid=\"Equ1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e):\u003cdiv id=\"Equ1\" class=\"Equation\"\u003e\u003cdiv format=\"TEX\" class=\"mathdisplay\" id=\"FileID_Equ1\" name=\"EquationSource\"\u003e\n$$\\:W=\\frac{\\left(N-n\\right)}{N}\\times\\:100\\%\\:$$\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"EquationNumber\"\u003e1\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ewhere \u003cem\u003eW\u003c/em\u003e is the anti-erosion efficiency, %; \u003cem\u003eN\u003c/em\u003e is the count of dust particles in the dry soil sample after air blowing; and \u003cem\u003en\u003c/em\u003e is the count of dust particles in the experimental sample (spraying the dust suppressant solution) after blowing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec6\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2.2. Measurement of Resistance to Evaporation\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe water loss rate allows to assess the dust suppressant\u0026rsquo;s water retention ability and evaluate its resistance to evaporation at elevated temperatures. The experimental procedure was as follows: a certain amount of soil sample was placed in a Petri dish; afterwards, the prepared dust suppressant was uniformly sprayed on the dust surface using a water can; finally, the Petri dish was transferred to a constant temperature chamber at 50℃ and taken out every 1 h for mass measurement. The water loss rate is the average of three repetitions and is calculated by Eq.\u0026nbsp;(\u003cspan refid=\"Equ2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e).\u003cdiv id=\"Equ2\" class=\"Equation\"\u003e\u003cdiv format=\"TEX\" class=\"mathdisplay\" id=\"FileID_Equ2\" name=\"EquationSource\"\u003e\n$$\\:{W}_{e}=\\frac{{W}_{b}-{W}_{i}}{{W}_{b}-{W}_{a}}\\times\\:100\\%$$\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"EquationNumber\"\u003e2\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ewhere \u003cem\u003eW\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003ee\u003c/sub\u003e is the water loss rate, %; \u003cem\u003eW\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003ea\u003c/sub\u003e is the initial mass of dry Petri dish and soil sample, g; \u003cem\u003eW\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003eb\u003c/sub\u003e is the total mass after spraying the dust suppressant, g; and \u003cem\u003eW\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003ei\u003c/sub\u003e is the mass of the Petri dish and soil sample at hour \u003cem\u003ei\u003c/em\u003e, g.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec7\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2.3. Hygroscopicity Performance Test\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eHygroscopicity refers to the ability of a dust suppressant to absorb moisture, which was characterized through the moisture content. In this study, 70 g treated dust was added to the Petri dish and sprayed with the dust suppressant. The sample was left to be completely wetted and placed in a natural indoor environment for 72 h. The weight of the sample was determined at regular intervals. The Eq.\u0026nbsp;(\u003cspan refid=\"Equ3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e) is for calculating the moisture content rate.\u003cdiv id=\"Equ3\" class=\"Equation\"\u003e\u003cdiv format=\"TEX\" class=\"mathdisplay\" id=\"FileID_Equ3\" name=\"EquationSource\"\u003e\n$$\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:\\:M=\\frac{{m}_{i\\:}-{m}_{1}-{m}_{2}}{{m}_{2}}\\times\\:100\\%$$\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"EquationNumber\"\u003e3\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ewhere \u003cem\u003eM\u003c/em\u003e is the moisture content rate, %; \u003cem\u003em\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e\u003cem\u003ei\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sub\u003e is the mass of the Petri dish and soil sample at hour \u003cem\u003ei\u003c/em\u003e, g; \u003cem\u003em\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e\u003cem\u003e1\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sub\u003e is the mass of the Petri dish, g; \u003cem\u003em\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e\u003cem\u003e2\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sub\u003e is the mass of the dry soil sample, g.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2.4. Measurement of Hardness and Thickness of Curing Layers\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAfter spraying a certain amount of dust suppressant solution on the soil surface, a hard curing layer can form. The curing layer was then taken from the top of bulk soil sample, as shown in Fig. S2a, and the hardness of curing layer was roughly evaluated by a 50-g weight impact experiment (see Fig. S3), in which the curing layer was damaged by the weight. If the sample could withstand greater forces (i.e., the weight at a higher position) without breaking, it means that the sample was harder. The impact force can be calculated by Eq.\u0026nbsp;(\u003cspan refid=\"Equ4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e):\u003cdiv id=\"Equ4\" class=\"Equation\"\u003e\u003cdiv format=\"TEX\" class=\"mathdisplay\" id=\"FileID_Equ4\" name=\"EquationSource\"\u003e\n$$\\:F=\\frac{m\\sqrt{2gℎ}}{t}$$\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"EquationNumber\"\u003e4\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ewhere \u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e is the impact force of falling weight, N; \u003cem\u003em\u003c/em\u003e is the mass of the weight, g; \u003cem\u003eg\u003c/em\u003e is the gravitational acceleration, 9.8 m/s\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e; \u003cem\u003eh\u003c/em\u003e is the height of the weight, m; \u003cem\u003et\u003c/em\u003e is the impact time, 0.001 s. The curing layer for the test was prepared with the following procedure: dry soil (30\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;0.05 g) was placed into a 75 mm diameter plastic dish and sprayed uniformly with a given amount of dust suppressant solution, and the curing layer was disassociated from the bulk soil sample for weight impact experiment. The height of weight, at which the curing layer crushed, was recorded to assess the hardness. The sample before the weight impact experiment was denoted as a general sample, while the crushed one after the impact was denoted as a broken sample (see the example in Fig. S2b in the Supplementary Materials). The thickness of the curing layer was measured with a straightedge, as shown in Fig. S4. Four random points along the circumference of the curing layer were measured and averaged value was reported.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec9\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2.5. Surfactant Property Test\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe effect of surfactant was evaluated by an infiltration experiment. During the experiment, 15 g soil sample was loaded into plastic centrifuge tubes with the same volume (15 mL). Then 2 mL of the dust suppressant solution was transferred into the centrifuge tube. The wetting depth of the dust suppressant within 60 s was measured. The infiltration velocity was used to assess the wetting property of the solution, which is calculated by Eq.\u0026nbsp;(\u003cspan refid=\"Equ5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e).\u003cdiv id=\"Equ5\" class=\"Equation\"\u003e\u003cdiv format=\"TEX\" class=\"mathdisplay\" id=\"FileID_Equ5\" name=\"EquationSource\"\u003e\n$$\\:V=\\frac{\\varDelta\\:ℎ}{60}$$\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"EquationNumber\"\u003e5\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ewhere \u003cem\u003eV\u003c/em\u003e is the infiltration velocity, mm/s; \u003cem\u003e∆h\u003c/em\u003e is the wetting depth, mm.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec10\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2.6. Characterization of Physical and Chemical Properties\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe NDJ-8S rotary viscometer was applied to test the viscosity of the dust suppressant when the temperature in the solution was held at 25\u0026deg;C, as stated in the GB/T10247-2008 standard Viscosity Measurement. The static droplet method was used to measure the contact angle on the soil sample surface, with the help of JF99A contact angle analyzer. The pH of solution was determined using the Delta 320-S digital pH meter. The microscopic surface morphology of dust suppressant particles was observed by the MIRA3 scanning electron microscope.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.3. Ecological Compatibility Test\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.3.1. Plant Growth Test\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003ePlant growth experiments were designed to assess whether the soil was toxic to green plants such as Pakchoi seeds after the use of the dust suppressant. The amount of dust suppressant applied in the experiment was 1, 2 and 3 L/m\u003csup\u003e3\u003c/sup\u003e, and a blank control group was set up. Each group of Pakchoi was planted in Petri dish filled with 30 g soil. The Pakchoi seeds were evenly placed on top of the soil, and the growth of plants was recorded at 3rd d, 7th d and 14th d after germination. After 14 days of growth, the Pakchoi was dried at 75\u0026deg;C to constant weight to determine the biomass and bud length.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec13\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.3.2. Biodegradability Test\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe dust suppressant solution was dried in a drying oven at 105 ℃ until the mass remained unchanged, then collected the dried solid and compressed into a tablet. A certain amount of soil sample was placed in a Petri dish, and the tablet was buried 5 cm below the surface of the soil and recorded the mass periodically. The procedure was repeated three times and the results were averaged. The schematic of the biodegradability test was shown in Fig. S5. The mass loss rate was calculated using Eq.\u0026nbsp;(\u003cspan refid=\"Equ6\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e).\u003cdiv id=\"Equ6\" class=\"Equation\"\u003e\u003cdiv format=\"TEX\" class=\"mathdisplay\" id=\"FileID_Equ6\" name=\"EquationSource\"\u003e\n$$\\:\\:\\mu\\:=\\frac{{M}_{0}-{M}_{1}}{{M}_{0}}\\times\\:100\\%$$\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"EquationNumber\"\u003e6\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ewhere \u003cem\u003eM\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e0\u003c/sub\u003e is the initial mass of dried dust suppressant, mg; \u003cem\u003eM\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e1\u003c/sub\u003e is the mass of dust suppressant after a certain time, mg; \u003cem\u003e\u0026micro;\u003c/em\u003e is the mass loss rate of dust suppressant.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec14\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.3.3. Corrosion Test\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eCarbon steel was selected as the experimental material for corrosion test (see Fig. S6 in the Supplementary Materials). The uniform corrosion performance test was performed according to the \u0026ldquo;Laboratory uniform corrosion full immersion Test method for Metallic Materials\u0026rdquo; (Chinese Standard, JB/T7901-1999, 1999). The sample size was 50 mm length, 25 mm width and 5 mm height, and the test time was 72 h. The corrosion rate was expressed by Eq.\u0026nbsp;(\u003cspan refid=\"Equ7\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e).\u003cdiv id=\"Equ7\" class=\"Equation\"\u003e\u003cdiv format=\"TEX\" class=\"mathdisplay\" id=\"FileID_Equ7\" name=\"EquationSource\"\u003e\n$$\\:\\alpha\\:=\\frac{{8.76\\times\\:{10}^{7}\\times\\:(M}_{1}-{M}_{2})}{STD}$$\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"EquationNumber\"\u003e7\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ewhere \u003cem\u003eɑ\u003c/em\u003e is the corrosion rate, mm/a; \u003cem\u003eM\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e\u003cem\u003e1\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sub\u003e is the sample mass before test, g; \u003cem\u003eM\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e\u003cem\u003e2\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sub\u003e is the sample mass after test, g; \u003cem\u003eS\u003c/em\u003e is the total area of sample, cm\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e; \u003cem\u003eT\u003c/em\u003e is the test time, h; and \u003cem\u003eD\u003c/em\u003e is the density of material, kg/m\u003csup\u003e3\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec15\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.4. Design of Orthogonal Experiment\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe design of the orthogonal experimental scheme followed the principle that each level of each factor should be combined an equal number of times with each level of other factors, irrespective of the potential interaction between factors (Wang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). In this study, the major constituents, including binder (ADH), surfactant (SAA), hygroscopic agent (SAP), were further optimized. The best composition for the dust suppressant was obtained by using the pH value, water loss rate, infiltration velocity, anti-erosion efficiency as the investigated parameters. The orthogonal experiment was carried out in the same way as the single constituent experiment. The formula table was obtained using an L\u003csub\u003e9\u003c/sub\u003e(3\u003csup\u003e4\u003c/sup\u003e) orthogonal table, as shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe level table of each factor.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"4\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eLevel\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"3\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFactors\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eADH\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSAP\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSAA\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.05%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.5%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.10%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.25%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.0%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.15%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.50%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.0%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.20%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec17\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.1. Main Constituents of the Dust Suppressant\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec18\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.1.1. Single Constituent Experiment\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe main role of the binder is to bond the fine dust to form large agglomerates, so as to increase the dust mass and shorten the settling time of fugitive dust to enhance the effect of the dust suppressant (Huang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). Sodium alginate (ADH-1), sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (ADH-2), sodium polyacrylate (ADH-3) and sodium carboxymethyl starch (ADH-4) were selected as the preliminary binder. The performance of each binder was evaluated by the hardness and thickness of the curing layer and the anti-erosion efficiency. The results of different binders with 0.5% concentration are shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e. According to Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003ea, the order of hardness is ADH-1\u0026gt;ADH-2\u0026gt;ADH-3\u0026gt;ADH-4. ADH-1 performed well in terms of hardness, but the curing layer formed was only 1.8 mm thickness, while ADH-2 formed a curing layer with good impact resistance and a thickness of 4.6 mm, achieving an effective coverage of the underlying loose soil. The anti-erosion efficiencies of curing layer before and after weight impact experiments (i.e., the general sample and broken sample) are shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003eb. ADH-2 had a better wind erosion resistance, and the anti-erosion efficiencies were all over 90%. The anti-evaporation performance for ADH-2 was the best in all samples for the first 3 h of the experiment (Fig. S7). Therefore, ADH-2 was selected as the binder and was studied with six concentration gradients of 0.05%, 0.15%, 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75%, and 1.00% to explore the effect of concentration. The viscosity of the solution exhibited an increase trend as the binder concentrations was raised (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003ec), but the hardness and thickness of the curing layer remained almost constant in the high concentration range (Fig. S8). Below a concentration of 0.25%, a notable increase in anti-erosion efficiency was observed, then it stabilized at approximately 90%. (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003ed). It was found that excessively high binder concentrations posed drawbacks such as hindered dissolution during application and increased cost (Liang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e), so the concentration range was set from 0.05\u0026ndash;0.50%.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSurfactant can reduce the surface tension of dust suppressant solution and make the dust particles wet effectively, which accelerates the speed for dust infiltration (Shaban et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Siyal et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Xiong \u0026amp; Zhang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e). Sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SAA-1), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SAA-2) and hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (SAA-3) were selected as raw materials for investigation. According to Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003ea, it can be found that the infiltration velocity of the three surfactants in the soil column increased with concentration and eventually leveled off, and the infiltration velocity of SAA-1 was always greater than the other two surfactants. This shows that SAA-1 has the best infiltration performance. The contact angle (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003eb) and viscosity (Fig. S9) of different concentrations of SAA-1 were further measured, and it was found that both of them showed a constant reduction with the increasing SAA-1 concentration, and the rate of angle decrease exhibited a deceleration when the concentration surpassed 0.15%. When the SAA-1 concentration was 0.20%, the thickness of the curing layer could reach 7.7 mm (Fig. S10). Therefore, SAA-1 was selected as the surfactant and its concentration range was determined to be from 0.10\u0026ndash;0.20% in light of its experimental results of contact angle and cost.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhen the ambient humidity is high, hygroscopic agents can absorb moisture from the air and help increase the water content and relative density of the dust so that it will not be easy to suspend (Huang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). Magnesium chloride (SAP-1), calcium chloride (SAP-2) and sodium chloride (SAP-3) were selected as the hygroscopic agents. The performance of each hygroscopic agent was evaluated by the moisture content rate and its increment of soil samples. The changes in moisture content rate over time are shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003ec, it can be found that SAP-1 demonstrated the best hygroscopic performance. As the SAP-1 concentration increased, the water content of the dust continued to improve (see in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003ed). When the SAP-1 concentration increased from 0.0\u0026ndash;2.0%, the rate of water content reduction slowed down significantly. However, with the further increase in concentration, the rate of moisture loss from samples did not change substantially, and the final moisture content stabilized at about 6%, which indicated that the moisture absorption capacity of the hygroscopic agent was limited and a continuous increase in concentration would cause wastage. Therefore, SAP-1 was selected as the best hygroscopic agent, and its concentration range was set from 0.5\u0026ndash;2.0%.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec19\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.1.2. Orthogonal Experiment\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eBased on the results obtained from the single constituent experiments, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose was selected as the binder, sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate as the surfactant, and magnesium chloride as the hygroscopic agent. An orthogonal table was designed according to the optimal concentration range. The results of the nine sets of experiments are shown in Table \u003cspan refid=\"MOESM1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003eS1\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe K value refers to the average value of parameters obtained using the same index factor at the same level. The range R is the difference between the maximum and minimum values of K, reflecting the influence of various factor on the result (Zhang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018a\u003c/span\u003e). Through the range analysis of the test data of each index, the primary and secondary order of each factor and the optimal combination can be obtained (shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt can be seen from Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e that the surfactant concentration factor has the maximal range and the order of factors affecting the formula is C\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;B\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;A when the pH value is evaluated. To meet the requirements of practical application, the pH value of dust suppressant is generally neutral, so the optimal combination is A\u003csub\u003e1\u003c/sub\u003eB\u003csub\u003e3\u003c/sub\u003eC\u003csub\u003e1\u003c/sub\u003e. In terms of water loss rate, the three factors affecting the formulation are B\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;A\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;C and the best combination is A\u003csub\u003e3\u003c/sub\u003eB\u003csub\u003e3\u003c/sub\u003eC\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e. The range of hygroscopic agents is the largest, which means it has a major influence on the water loss rate. The greater the concentration is, the lower the water loss rate. When using the infiltration velocity as the parameter, the binder concentration factor has the largest range, with a specific order of A\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;C\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;B. The faster the infiltration velocity is, the better the wetting effect on the dust. Therefore, the optimal combination is A\u003csub\u003e1\u003c/sub\u003eB\u003csub\u003e3\u003c/sub\u003eC\u003csub\u003e3\u003c/sub\u003e. Regarding the anti-erosion efficiency, the binder has the most significant effect and the hygroscopic agent corresponds to the smallest range, so the best combination is A\u003csub\u003e3\u003c/sub\u003eB\u003csub\u003e3\u003c/sub\u003eC\u003csub\u003e3\u003c/sub\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe effect of the binder on anti-erosion efficiency is the most significant, displaying clear enhancement with increasing concentration. Hence, the most suitable binder concentration is 0.5%. As for the hygroscopic agent, the highest concentration was selected in all optimal combinations so the concentration should be set to 2.0%. Surfactants have notable effects on pH and permeation rate. As the concentration increases, both the permeation rate and pH level exhibit an upward trend. In order to keep the pH value from being too high while ensuring the outstanding wetting and permeation ability, the concentration of surfactant should be set to 0.15%. In summary, the optimized formulation for the main constituents of the dust suppressant (DSF) includes 0.5% CMC-Na, 2.0% MgCl\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e and 0.15% SDBS.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eLevel average and range.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"13\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c9\" colnum=\"9\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c10\" colnum=\"10\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c11\" colnum=\"11\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c12\" colnum=\"12\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c13\" colnum=\"13\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"4\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003epH\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"3\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWater loss rate\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"3\" nameend=\"c10\" namest=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePenetration velocity\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(mm/s)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"3\" nameend=\"c13\" namest=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnti-erosion efficiency\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eK1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7.95\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8.08\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7.44\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13.10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15.48\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12.44\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.32\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.23\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.18\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e58.10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e75.82\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e73.71\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eK2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7.96\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7.99\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7.77\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12.01\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12.51\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e11.84\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.22\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.23\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e82.75\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e78.76\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e78.17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eK3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8.03\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7.87\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8.73\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e11.30\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8.43\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12.13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.28\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e92.72\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e78.99\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e81.69\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.07\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.29\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.80\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7.05\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.60\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.02\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c11\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e34.62\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c12\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c13\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7.99\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec20\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.2. Fillers for the Composite Dust Suppressant\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec21\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.2.1. Fillers for Dust Suppressants\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe main component of bentonite (BT) is montmorillonite, which has a complex crystal structure with an octahedral alumina sheet sandwiched between two tetrahedral silica sheets (Jiang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). The special layered structure gives bentonite unique hydrophilicity, swelling and heat resistance (Park et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e), allowing it to be widely used as a thickener. The experimental results obtained by adding different concentrations of bentonite into the preliminary formulation are shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e. With the increase of bentonite concentration, the viscosity became higher within the available range and the anti-evaporation performance improved significantly. Fig. S11 showed that the addition of bentonite did not significantly alter the thickness of the curing layer, which remained approximately 8.5 mm. This observation indicated that bentonite did not have a large impact on the permeability. Meanwhile, when the bentonite concentration was increased from 1.0\u0026ndash;2.0% (Fig. S12), the anti-erosion efficiency was maintained at about 94% with limited improvement. Therefore, the concentration of bentonite was set to 1.0% by combining the experimental results and economic efficiency.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBased on the existing formulation, biomass powder (BP) was selected to enhance the covering effect. The dust suppressant solution on the soil surface bonded the biomass fibers together and covered the lower seam completely, providing a good dust suppression effect. As shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003ec, after adding biomass powder, the surface of the curing layer consisted of both soil particles and straw biomass. With the increase of biomass content, the thickness of the curing layer had an obvious increment and the hardness also enhanced significantly due to the enhanced binding effect of straw biomass (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003ed). When the mass fraction of straw powder exceeded 1.0%, both hardness and thickness tended to stabilize. Therefore, 1.0% of straw powder was added as a filler in the dust suppressant.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe dust suppressant solution developed in the laboratory was yellowish-brown, closely resembling to the color of bare soil, so it was hard to observe the dust suppression effect with the naked eye after spraying. Therefore, the addition of environmentally friendly color paste or pigment was considered to realize the visualization of dust suppression effect. Common green pigments in the market, including natural chlorophyll, organic phthalocyanine green and inorganic iron oxide green, were selected as raw material alternatives, and the addition amount was controlled at 0.1%-0.3%. The results are shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003ee. The three pigments had good compatibility with dust suppressants and better adsorption of dust, also showed good visual effects in practical engineering applications (Fig. S13). Natural chlorophyll was too expensive to be used as the pigment of this product, and iron oxide green contained heavy metal elements, conflicting with the principle of environmental protection. Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, phthalocyanine green was chosen as the auxiliary pigment.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec22\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.2.2. Physical and Chemical Properties of the Optimal Dust Suppressant\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe physical and chemical properties of the dust suppressant prepared with the optimal formulation are shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e. Viscosity is the most intuitive parameter to evaluate the bonding properties of dust suppressant, which reflects the degree of movement of molecular layers moving over each other (Medeiros et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). As the viscosity of the solution increases, the molecular movement becomes more restricted, resulting in a more effective dust suppression effect. The viscosity of the developed dust suppressant is 57.2 mPa\u0026middot;s. As a result, it has the obvious bonding effect of condensing dust particles together to increase their size, which not only ensures the anti-erosion efficiency, but also facilitates mixing, spraying and settling. The pH value of dust suppressant is 8.55, which makes it weakly alkaline. This pH value is in line with green principles of developed products and does not excessively change the performance of material and the original pH level of the soil. The contact angle serves as an indicator of the dust suppressant\u0026rsquo;s wetting performance to some extent. The results show that the contact angle of the dust suppressant solution on the dust surface is 40.791\u0026deg;, indicating that the agent can interact with the dust well and exhibit good wettability and permeability.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab3\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 3\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePhysical and chemical properties of the optimal dust suppressant.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"7\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNumber\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eViscosity(mPa\u0026middot;s)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003epH\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eContact angle (\u0026deg;)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c3\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e56.6\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c5\" namest=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8.62\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e42.138\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c3\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e57.8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c5\" namest=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8.31\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e40.144\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c3\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e57.3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c5\" namest=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8.73\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e40.091\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAverage\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c3\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e57.2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c5\" namest=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8.55\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e40.791\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAiming to observe the impact of dust suppressant on solidification and binding effects of soil samples, scanning electron microscope was used to examine the surface morphologies of the original soil samples, samples after spraying water and the dust suppressant. Figure\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003ea and b shows the surface of the original soil samples. It was observed that the surface was quite smooth, with dust particles displaying significant variation in shape and size. In this case, the soil was susceptible to the wind, causing dust dispersion pollution. After water spraying, we found that there was no obvious morphological change on the surface of soil samples. The dust particles demonstrated a state of being lightly moistened by water and their boundaries were clearly defined, exhibiting a loose distribution without agglomeration (see Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003ec and d). Figure\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003ee and f shows the SEM images of the soil samples treated by the dust suppressant solution. The polymer material of dust suppressant covered the original soil surface and formed a layer of dense hardened shell, which bound the loose particles together, resulting in a close accumulation of soil particles. The increase in both size and weight of dust particles made them hard to be dispersed by air flow, leading to a desirable dust suppression effect (Li et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e; Zhang et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018b\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec23\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.3. Ecological Impact Tests\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec24\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.3.1. Biological Toxicity Test on Dust Suppressant\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn order to investigate the biological toxicity of the optimal dust suppressant on soil, Pakchoi seeds were planted in soil sprayed with dust suppressant and pure water under the same light source, temperature and humidity conditions. As shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig6\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003ea, during the initial stage of cultivation, the germination rate of Pakchoi sprayed with water was roughly equivalent to that of the dust suppressant solution sprayed with 1 L/m\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e, but decreased as the amount of spraying increased. After 14 days, the germination rate of soil samples sprayed with dust suppressant exceeded that of those sprayed with water, and the bud length and dry weight of all groups were close to each other (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig6\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003eb). At the beginning of the experiment, the spraying of the dust suppressant caused the soil surface to slab and solidify, resulting an increase in the resistance of the Pakchoi to spring out of the soil, and thus the seed germination rate on the 3rd day was lower compared to the water spraying group.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRelevant studies have shown that polymeric organic compounds can use their hydrophilic properties to slow down soil water loss (Tian et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). On the other hand, they could improve soil aeration, optimize soil structure and reduce nutrient wastage (Tian et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). Meanwhile, the inorganic salts contained in dust suppressants played an important role in plant growth, accelerating cell division and promoting seed maturation (Adetunji et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). In summary, both experimental results and relevant theoretical studies proved that the developed dust suppressant had no negative impact on the growth of plants in the soil.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec25\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.3.2. Analysis of Biodegradability of the Optimal Dust Suppressant\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eFigure\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig7\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e shows the degradation profile of the dust suppressant tablet. As shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig7\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e, the percentage of the mass loss rate gradually increased over time. From 0 to 15 days, the sample tablet degraded at a slow rate, reaching a mass loss rate of about 2%. Then, the rate of mass loss was essentially stable from 15 to 36 days, eventually reaching a loss rate of about 7%. The macromolecular structure of cellulose was decomposed by cellulase and microorganisms in the soil during this period (Abe et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e; Xu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). Furthermore, the dust suppressant comprised approximately 33.9% organic constituents, while the remaining are stable inorganic substances, so the observation indicates that the dust suppressant showed excellent performance in the degradable range. After that, the degradation curve leveled off and finally reached 7.9% after 48 days, which was only 0.9% higher than that of 36 days. The above shows that the dust suppressant possessed a certain level of stability and limited mass loss. Therefore, the prepared dust suppressant could effectively work for a long time; meanwhile it partially biodegradable in the soil.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec26\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e\u003cb\u003e3.3.3. Analysis of Corrosivity of the Dust Suppressant\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe uniform corrosion results of the dust suppressant are shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e. The uniform corrosion rate of the dust suppressant for carbon steels (0.1220 mm/a) is lower than that of distilled water (0.1721 mm/a). In addition, after 72 h of complete immersion in distilled water, the carbon steel showed a grooved surface, while the corrosion area was larger and darker (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig8\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003ed-f). After soaking in the dust suppressant solution for 72 h, the surface of carbon steel appeared scattered pitting, with a small area of corrosion spots and a lighter color (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig8\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003eg-i). Water-soluble polymer organic substances can be adsorbed on the metal surface to form a barrier layer with a certain thickness, playing a role in delaying corrosion (Berdimurodov et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e; Haba et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e). The developed dust suppressant used sodium carboxymethyl cellulose as a binder, which effectively separated the metal from the corrosive environment and produced an effect of corrosion inhibition (Wu et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020b\u003c/span\u003e), thus preventing the equipment from rapid corrosion.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab4\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 4\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eResults of the corrosion rate test via immersion of carbon steel specimen.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"6\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSamples\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNumber\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eArea/cm\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMass loss/g\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCorrosion rate(mm/a)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAverage corrosion rate(mm/a)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"2\" rowspan=\"3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDistilled water\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.0276\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.1744\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\" morerows=\"2\" rowspan=\"3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.1721\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.0253\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.1599\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.0288\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.1820\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"2\" rowspan=\"3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe dust suppressant\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.0187\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.1182\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\" morerows=\"2\" rowspan=\"3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.1220\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.0208\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.1315\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.0184\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.1163\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"4. CONCLUSION","content":"\u003cp\u003eIn the present study, a biomass-based dust suppressant with low cost, environmental friendliness and significant dust suppression effect was developed. The raw material composition was determined through single constituent and orthogonal experiments, followed by the incorporation of fillers and pigments aiming at practical application. The following conclusions were obtained.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1)The types and appropriate concentration ranges of constituents for the composite dust suppressant were determined. 0.05%~0.50% of CMC-Na was selected as the binder, 0.5%~2.0% of MgCl\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e as the hygroscopic agent, and 0.10%~0.20% of SDBS as the surfactant.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e2)The orthogonal experiment showed the optimal formulation of the dust suppressant: 0.5% CMC-Na, 2% MgCl\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e, 0.15% SDBS. 1% bentonite and 1% straw powder could be added as fillers to maximize the performance of the dust suppressant.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e3) The performance test demonstrated that the prepared dust suppressant showed excellent wettability, permeability and anti-evaporation effect. The thickness of the curing layer formed after dust suppressant spraying is 8\u0026ndash;9 mm, and the anti-erosion efficiency can reach more than 94%, indicating commendable wind erosion resistance.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4) The composite dust suppressant demonstrated non-biotoxicity and weak corrosivity on metals, and can be partially degraded by soil in a couple of months.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e \u003ch2\u003eDeclaration of competing interest\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eZ. L. , W. L., X. Z. and X. M. prepared the figures, wrote the original draft and edited the manuscript text . S. K., J. M. , T. X. and Y. C. conducted expeirments and analyzed the results. All authors reviewed the manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAcknowledgments\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis research has been financially sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52170169), and the grant from the Three Gorges Joint Fund for Innovative Development of Hubei Province (2023AFD193). Mrs. Zeng Xiang also thanks the financial support from the Jiangxi Province.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAbe MM, Branciforti MC, Brienzo M (2021) Biodegradation of Hemicellulose-Cellulose-Starch-Based Bioplastics and Microbial Polyesters. 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Powder Technol 339:882\u0026ndash;893. \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttp://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2018.08.081\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1016/j.powtec.2018.08.081\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"dust pollution, environment-friendly dust suppressant, wind-erosion resistance test, biomass","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5000826/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5000826/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eAlthough dust suppressants with diverse raw materials have been developed to cope with the increasingly urban dust pollution, the previous researches predominantly focused on the exploration of formulations for composite dust suppressants, and their environmental friendliness were seldom considered. In this study, an environment-friendly dust suppressant, which exhibited a favorable covering effect and excellent dust suppression performance, is prepared to address this research gap. Through single constituent experiments and orthogonal experiments, the types and optimal concentrations of binder, hygroscopic agent and surfactant are first determined. The optimal formulation of the dust suppressant includes 0.5% CMC-Na, 2% MgCl\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e and 0.15% sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate, 1% bentonite and 1% straw powder could be added as fillers to maximize the performance. The dust suppression effect is evaluated using a self-designed wind-erosion resistance device, revealing a favorable anti-erosion efficiency exceeding 94%. The hardness of the curing layer formed after spraying the dust suppressant can reach 169 N at a given thickness of 9.5 mm. Additionally, the composite dust suppressant is of non-biotoxicity and shows negligible corrosiveness to carbon steels (0.122 mm/a), while demonstrating its biodegradability in soil. The results indicate that the biomass-based dust suppressant in this study is promising for practical applications.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Synthesis, Optimization and Performance Evaluation of a Biomass-based Environment-friendly Dust Suppressant","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-10-01 17:34:41","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5000826/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"2e0ee73e-327c-4d3a-899b-9b538f5f213d","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 1st, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-10-03T08:08:42+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-10-01 17:34:41","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-5000826","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-5000826","identity":"rs-5000826","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}