The effect of amphiphilic monomer on the interaction between amphiphilic polyacrylamide and crude oil on the solid surface

Hydrophobically modified polyacrylamide (HMPAM) is one of most used amphiphilic polymers for polymer flooding in oilfield. The interaction between HMPAM and crude oil is key to the oil displacement efficiency of HMPAM. However, due to the lack of experimental research method, there is little research on this aspect. In this work, HMPAMs containing different types of amphiphilic monomers were prepared, their interactions with crude oil were studied by dual polarization interferometry (DPI) for the first time, and their adsorption conformations on the surface of crude oil were discussed. The DPI results directly shown that the influence of amphiphilic monomer type on the interaction strength was as follows: nonionic type > cationic type ≈ anionic type. This order was consistent with the adsorption capacity of amphiphilic monomer on the surface of crude oil, indicating that the interaction strength between HMPAM and crude oil mainly depended on the type of amphiphilic monomers. In addition, the DPI results indirectly shown that the effect of amphiphilic monomer type on the HMPAM molecular coiled conformation on the surface of crude oil was also determined by the adsorption capacity of amphiphilic monomer. The research results of this paper can provide useful information for the amphiphilic monomer selection from the perspective of improving oil displacement efficiency of HMPAM.