effect of hydrophobic monomer type on the rheological properties of the hydrophobically modified polyacrylamides synthesized via micellar polymerization

Nowadays, the use of synthetic polymers such as polyacrylamide and its modified species has been highly regarded as a substitute for natural polymers used in drilling fluid. this project aims to synthesize polymers based on acrylamide (am) modified with three different hydrophobic groups, including styrene(st), n-4-ethylphenylacrylamide (eφam), and n-benzylacrylamide (bam). to obtain a polymer with the desired properties, the terpolymers of am, 2-acrylamido-2- methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid (amps), and hydrophobic monomer were synthesized by micellar free radical copolymerization technique. polymer structure was determined by the elemental analysis and ftir spectroscopy. then, the rheological properties of the samples were investigated. it was found that the am/amps/eφam solution shows higher viscosities with a shear thinning behavior which is suitable for applications such as water-based drilling fluids (wbdfs).