Issue 44, 2020

Rheological response of a modified polyacrylamide–silica nanoparticles hybrid at high salinity and temperature

Abstract

Water-soluble polyacrylamides have often been used to modify flow response in various water-based technologies and industrial processes, including paints, water treatment, paper manufacturing, and chemical enhanced oil recovery. Polymers are susceptible to degradation at combined high salinity and elevated temperature conditions which limits their overall performance. Hybrid mixtures of hydrophobically modified polyacrylamide (HMPAM) with hydrophobically modified silica nanoparticles (NPs) emerged as a promising strategy for achieving enhanced stability and high viscosity in brines having a high total dissolved solids (TDS) content and high hardness at elevated temperatures (>20 wt% TDS, including >1.5 wt% divalent cations at T > 70 °C). The rheological response of the hybrids at various concentrations of HMPAM and NPs was examined to investigate the synergic effects. Hybridization of HMPAM with NPs led to a higher viscosity at high salinity and elevated temperature. The viscosity improvement was more pronounced when the concentration of HMPAM was in the semi-dilute regime and concentration of NPs was higher than a critical threshold where the viscosity increased roughly by a factor of 1.5. Here we present the mechanisms of improved viscosity behaviour. The rheological data suggest the role of NPs in the bridging between HMPAM molecules, which in turn increases the hydrodynamic radius and consequently the viscosity of the hybrids.

Graphical abstract: Rheological response of a modified polyacrylamide–silica nanoparticles hybrid at high salinity and temperature

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Jul 2020
Accepted
30 Sep 2020
First published
30 Sep 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Soft Matter, 2020,16, 10198-10210

Rheological response of a modified polyacrylamide–silica nanoparticles hybrid at high salinity and temperature

M. Mirzaie Yegane, F. Hashemi, F. Vercauteren, N. Meulendijks, R. Gharbi, P. E. Boukany and P. Zitha, Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 10198 DOI: 10.1039/D0SM01254H

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