Rheological investigation of a random copolymer of polyacrylamide and polyacryloyl hydrazide (PAM-ran-PAH) for oil recovery applications

Rosemary oil low energy nanoemulsion: optimization, µrheology, in silico, in vitro, and ex vivo characterization

Acetylcholine imbalance in the human brain causes dementia-related symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors prevent the lysis of acetylcholine in the brain and prevent dementia. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the in silico and in vitro AChE potential of rosemary oil and then formulate it into nanoemulsion as an adjuvant with co-administration of Donepezil (Dz) with a thought for futuristic target for Alzheimer's diseases via the intranasal route. The aim for preparing this formulation was to add the AChE inhibition effect of the rosemary oil to the effect that acts as an additive effect along with Dz. The docking score of rosemary oil components on human cholinesterase 1GQR protein was found to be >-5 kcal/mol. In vitro AChE activity of rosemary oil confirms the prominent IC50 of oil at 0.001 µL/min. Nanoemulsion was prepared by low energy emulsification technique using Tween 80 as surfactant and ethanol or diethylene glycol monoethyl ether as cosurfactant. Droplet size, polydisperity index, and zeta potential of stable nanoemulsion was ∼16 nm, 0.1, and -6.05 mV for stable batch. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy microscopic studies depicted the spherical shape of the droplet. Micro rheology investigation of nanoemulsion clearly attributes to gel-sol-gel behaviour of formulated nanoemulsion. Thermal evaluation of nanoemulsion depicts the phase transition behaviour of ethanol-based nanoemulsion at 60 °C. Ex vivo nasal ciliotoxicity and permeation studies of formulation establish the safety of ethanol-based rosemary oil-loaded nanoemulsion and permeation mechanism of Dz from the nanoemulsion. In vitro permeation studies showed more drug penetration from the nanoemulsion as compared to the plain drug. The prepared nanoemulsion was found to be stable for 3 months at 4, 25, and 45 °C of storage. This low energy preparation method can be advantageous for the preparation of scalable nanoemulsion and can be a futuristic therapeutic for Alzheimer's disease.

Rheological properties of two high polymers suspended in an abrasive slurry jet

With high polymer added into suspension, the use of abrasive slurry jet (ASJ) has significant advantages in energy management. The quality and efficiency of ASJ are affected distinctly by its structure and the flow field feature, both of which depend on the rheological properties of the abrasive slurry. Therefore, this paper carries out a series of experiments to study the rheological properties of abrasive slurry with polyacrylamide (PAM) and carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) commonly used in ASJ. The paper also explores the effect of temperature and abrasive on the apparent viscosity of the abrasive slurry. Experimental results show that PAM and CMC solutions behave as a pseudoplastic non-Newtonian fluid in the selected concentration range, whose apparent viscosity increases with the concentration. In addition, specific non-Newtonian fluid constitutive equations of the power-law model for PAM and CMC solution were obtained by nonlinear fitting calculation. The apparent viscosity decreases with the growth of temperature because it leads to the increase in spacing between molecules, making the attraction between molecules smaller and smaller. However, the abrasive has no influence on the apparent viscosity of abrasive slurry for these molecular bonds, and their mechanical entanglements are not destroyed by abrasive particles in the suspension.

Extensional Rheological Measurements of Surfactant-Polymer Mixtures

Polymer solutions flowing in the porous media during enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes are subjected to both shear and extensional rheological deformation. However, the previous rheological studies conducted on a surfactant-polymer (SP) system or polymer systems were only shear-based. In this paper, the extensional rheological performance of hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) in the presence of an anionic surfactant at various concentrations (0, 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3%) is studied with deionized water and 1% NaCl. Further, the extensional rheological behavior of HPAM in the presence of NaCl and CaCl2 is studied at varying ionic strengths (1-10%). A capillary break-up extensional rheometer is used for performing extensional rheological characterization. Results revealed that the extensional resistance of HPAM is enhanced in the presence of a surfactant. Particularly, around the critical micelle concentration value of the surfactant (0.1%), HPAM showed higher extensional resistance. Higher extensional resistance for the SP system is observed with deionized water when compared to 1% NaCl. HPAM showed improved performance at 1% NaCl salinity when compared to the higher concentration of NaCl salinity. However, the presence of even 1% of calcium ions is detrimental to the extensional properties of HPAM.

Water absorption and viscosity behaviour of thermally stable novel graft copolymer of carboxymethyl cellulose and poly(sodium 1-hydroxy acrylate)

A novel thermally stable hydrolysed carboxymethyl cellulose-g-poly(sodium 1-hydroxy acrylate) i.e. CMC-g-PNaHA graft copolymer was synthesized from the CMC and vinyl monomer 5-methylene-2-isopropyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-one (MD) in an aqueous medium using an initiator followed by transformation of resulting CMC-g-PMD via alkaline hydrolysis. The graft copolymerization is confirmed by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD). The influence of the CMC and PNaHA content on the properties of the resulting hydrolysed CMC-g-PNaHA graft copolymer was investigated. In comparison with the PNaHA polymer, the resulted hydrolysed CMC-g-PNaHA grafted copolymer has improved thermal stability, water absorption properties, viscosity and weight-average molecular weight.