Synthesis and gelation properties of HPMC-g-poly(AM/AA/APEG2400) quaternary copolymer

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• Graft-modified HPMC-g-poly(AM/AA/APEG2400) quaternary copolymer was synthesized. • The quaternary copolymer has desirable salt resistance and temperature tolerance. • The hydrogel prepared by the copolymer showed adequate strength and tunable gelation time. • The hydrogel possessed superior stability with negligible syneresis after 130 days. To improve the stability of the polymers applied to profile control in high-temperature and high-salinity reservoirs, a water-soluble graft-copolymer HPMC-g-poly(AM/AA/APEG2400) was synthesized from hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC), acrylamide (AM), acrylic acid (AA), and allyl polyoxyethylene ether (APEG2400) via free-radical copolymerization using potassium persulfate (KPS) as the initiator. The molecular weight (M w ) of HPMC-g-poly(AM/AA/APEG2400) was controlled by the addition of the chain-transfer agent, sodium formate (SF), to the polymerization medium and was measured by capillary viscometry. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), proton nuclear magnetic resonance ( 1 H NMR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were performed to characterize the graft-copolymer. The rheological properties of the graft-copolymer were investigated at different salinities and temperatures. The graft-copolymer solution showed better salt resistance, temperature tolerance, and long-term thermal stability than partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM). In addition, hydrogels were prepared using the graft-copolymer with varying M w (346 × 10 4 –1319 × 10 4 ), a crosslinker (hexamethylenetetramine–resorcinol, (HMTA–RC)), and additives (citric acid, (CA), and ammonium phosphate monobasic, (MAP)), and the hydrogels exhibited adequate strength and tunable gelation time. The hydrogels prepared using the graft-copolymer with high M w possessed excellent long-term stabilities with negligible syneresis at 45 °C after 130 d, for the same conditions, the syneresis of conventional hydrogels prepared by HPAM reached approximately 90%.