Bitumen history:
The beginning of the modern bitumen industry can be attributed to the year 1712 when natural bitumen stones were discovered in France. At that time, bituminous materials were simply spread in the form of lumps on the surface of local roads. This technique was quite successful and in a short period of time, improvements were made in the form of powdering and heating the material before use. With the advancement of bitumen science and technology, very diverse and wide applications in various industries and for various purposes such as road construction, coating (floors, roofs, underground pipes, metal protection), sealing (reservoirs, canals, bridges), stabilization of loose sand , coloring and… has found.
What is bitumen?
Undoubtedly, the word “bitumen” is familiar to the masses of people, but perhaps this substance is not as well-known and clear to technical experts as it is a well-known and specific substance in the common sense. In the common understanding, “bitumen is a black substance, smelly and possibly unpleasant, which has two specific properties: adhesion and sealing; It originates from oil and is used in the preparation of asphalt or roofing.” And of course, this is a distant look at the bitumen, which includes only its appearance.
bitumen structure:
Bitumens are physically a homogeneous material, however, chemically, these materials are a heterogeneous mixture of different chemical compounds. Despite this issue, all bitumens have a series of common characteristics and properties. 08
The atomic structure of bitumen obtained by flame decomposition or other methods indicates that about 90% of bitumen is made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms, and most bitumens contain nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen in varying but low proportions. Small amounts of other atoms such as various metal atoms are usually found in bitumen, but it is clear that they do not affect the properties of bitumen. Bitumen, or bituminous materials in a better way, are a very diverse mixture of a wide range of hydrocarbons, which are classified into saturated and unsaturated, cyclic and non-cyclic, polar and non-polar categories.