Responsive copolymers for enhanced petroleum recovery. Quarterly progress report, March 21, 1995--June 22, 1995
Advanced polymer systems that possess microstructural features that are responsive to temperature, electrolyte concentration, and shear conditions are being synthesized which will be superior to polymers presently used for mobility control in enhanced oil recovery. Improved polymer performance is accomplished by controlling hydrophobic or ampholytic interactions between individual polymer chains in solution. Of special interest to our group have been (1) the elucidation of the mechanism of associative thickening and (2) the tailoring of thickeners with reversible associations responsive to changes in pH, ionic strength, temperature, or shear stress. A polymerization technique, termed ``micellar`` polymerization utilizes a surfactant to solubilize a relatively low mole percent of a hydrophobic monomer in water for copolymerization with a hydrophilic monomer. In this report, we examine the role of surfactant-to-monomer ratio (SMR) in the reaction medium on microstructure utilizing the N-[(1- pyrenylsulfonamido)ethyl] acrylamide (APS) monomer as a fluorescent label. Comparison is made with previously reported terpolymers of identical AM/AA compositions with N-(4-decyl)phenylacrylamide as the hydrophobic monomer. Unlike the uncharged copolymer of AM/APS, however, the AM/AA/APS terpolymers of this study do not show intermolecular associative thickening, apparently due to insufficient liaisons of hydrophobic microdomains even at high concentrations of terpolymer.
- Research Organization:
- University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS (United States). Dept. of Polymer Science
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC22-92BC14882
- OSTI ID:
- 93618
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/BC/14882-13; ON: DE95017094
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: [1995]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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