Viscometric behaviour of some hydrophobically modified cationic polyelectrolytes

Synthesis, Surface Tension, Flocculation and Antibacterial Properties of Cationic Copolymer Methacryloxyethyl Trimethyl Ammonium Chloride-Butyl Acrylate-Acrylamide

Three cationic copolymers methacryloxyethyl trimethyl ammonium chloride-butyl acrylate-acrylamide (MTAC-BA-AM terpolymer) were designed and synthesized by emulsion polymerization. Their structures were confirmed by FT-IR and 1H NMR. The effect of content of hydrophobic monomer butyl acrylate (BA) in MTAC-BA-AM terpolymer on surface activities, flocculation and antibacterial properties were investigated. The study of surface tension shows that MTAC-BA-AM terpolymer has good surface activity due to the introduction of hydrophobic monomer BA. The flocculation experiment showed that the light transmittance of the kaolin suspension supernatant was 98.13% when the dose of MTAC-BA-AM terpolymer in the kaolin suspension was 0.03 mg/L, which was obviously better than the P(MTAC-AM) (91.02%) without hydrophobic modification of BA. The bacteriostatic experiment of MTAC-BA-AM terpolymer showed that as the content of hydrophobic monomer BA in MTAC-BA-AM terpolymer increased the inhibitory rate of MTAC-BA-AM terpolymer aginst Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus)

A Thermal Thickening System Based on the Self-Assembly of a Zwitterionic Hydrophobic Association Polymer and Surfactant

The zwitterionic monomer, 1-(2-hydroxypropyl-sulfo)-acrylamide ethyl-N,N-dimethyl ammonium chloride (MeSA) was copolymerised with acrylamide (AM), acrylic acid (AA), and a hydrophobic monomer N,N-diallyl oleamide (DNDA) to obtain the zwitterionic hydrophobic association polymer AM/AA/DNDA/MeSA. The structure of the hydrophobic association polymer was characterised by 1H NMR, FT-IR, and intrinsic viscosity studies. The self-assembly system of the polymer and the surfactant Tween-40 was then formed, and the rheological properties and adsorptive performance of the self-assembly system were investigated. The result showed that the polymer–surfactant self-assembly system had good properties such as thickening, temperature resistance, salt resistance, and shear resistance. It is shown that the thermal thickening phenomenon, which allows the system to be used as a good petrochemical product in a high-temperature environment, provides a vital research foundation for the future application of this kind of self-assembly system.

Drag Reduction Performance and Mechanism of Hydrophobic Polymers in Fresh Water and Brine

Three kinds of drag reducer were synthesized by inverse emulsion polymerization and named PHWAM-1, PHWAM-2, and PHWAM-3. Drag reduction (DR) tests showed that the three drag reducers have different DR characteristics in fresh water and various saline waters because of their different types of hydrophobic monomers. PHWAM-1, without hydrophobic monomers, performs better in fresh water, while PHWAM-2 and PHWAM-3, with hydrophobic monomers, perform better in brine. In addition, PHWAM-3, which has twin-tailed hydrophobic monomers, performs best in high-concentration brine. Measurements of micro-particle size and observations of spatial structure suggest that although the stronger hydrophobic polymer has no DR advantage over a linear polymer in fresh water, the molecular chains form a mutually associative supporting structure that improves the DR performance over that of a linear polymer in high-concentration brine.

Viscosity of Semidilute and Concentrated Nonentangled Flexible Polyelectrolytes in Salt-Free Solution

We report viscosity data of nonentangled sodium polystyrene sulfonate (NaPSS) in salt-free aqueous solution as a function of polymer concentration ( c) and degree of polymerization ( N). Different empirical equations are examined and found not to describe the semidilute solution viscosity over a wide concentration range and/or to yield values of [η] that do not match dilute solution measurements. Deviations from the scaling prediction of η_sp ∝ c^1/2 (Fuoss' law) are observed at high concentrations. Specifically, we find η_sp ≈ N^1.26 c^1/2 e^{1.4 c} in the semidilute regime, which agrees with the scaling prediction only for c ≲ 0.02 M. The viscosity data presented in this study and in earlier reports show a high degree of consistency. A comparison with diffusion measurements for NaPSS in salt-free solution by Oostwal and co-workers suggests that the disagreement between the scaling theory and experiments does not arise solely from the concentration dependence of the monomeric friction coefficient.

Cationic polyelectrolyte induced separation of some inorganic contaminants and their mixture (zirconium silicate, kaolin, K-feldspar, zinc oxide) as well as of the paraffin oil from water

The flocculation efficiency of a cationic polyelectrolyte with quaternary ammonium salt groups in the backbone, namely PCA5 was evaluated on zirconium silicate (kreutzonit), kaolin, K- feldspar and zinc oxide (ZnO) suspensions prepared either with each pollutant or with their mixture. The effect of several parameters such as settling time, polymer dose and the pollutant type on the separation efficacy was evaluated and followed by optical density and zeta potential measurements. Except for ZnO, the interactions between PCA5 and suspended particles led to low residual turbidity values (around 4% for kreutzonit, 5% for kaolin and 8% for K-feldspar) as well as to the reduction of flocs settling time (from 1200 min to 30 min and 120 min in case of kaolinit and K-feldspar, respectively), that meant a high efficiency in their separation. The negative value of the zeta potential and flocs size measurements, at the optimum polymer dose, point to contribution from charge patch mechanism for the particles flocculation. A good efficiency of PCA5 in separation of paraffin oil (a minimum residual turbidity of 9.8%) has been also found.

Critical exponents and self-similarity for sol-gel transition in aqueous alginate systems induced by in situ release of calcium cations

The sol-gel transition in aqueous alginate systems induced by in situ released calcium cations was monitored with rheology methods. Four alginate samples with different molecular weights and M/G ratios were used over the concentration C(Alg) of 2 approximately 6 wt % with different mole ratios f of Ca2+ to the alginate repeat unit. The scaling for the zero shear viscosity eta(0) before the gel point and the equilibrium modulus Ge after the gel point was described as eta(0) approximately epsilon(-k) and Ge approximately epsilon(z), respectively, where the relative distance to the gel point f(gel) was epsilon = (/f-f(gel)/)/f(gel). The relaxation critical exponent n was determined with Winter's criterion, and the critical exponents k and z estimated respectively from independent measurements of eta(0) and Ge gave n from z/(k + z). Before the gel point, the storage and loss moduli G' and G'' obtained at various epsilon can be superposed fairly well to form the master curve. The critical exponents n, k, and z were also evaluated from the shift factors and the structure self-similarity was found in the critical gel. The critical exponents evaluated with different methods agreed well with each other, suggesting two categories of the gelation as growth and cross-link. For the alginate with lower molecular weight, the critical exponents were almost independent of alginate concentration and close to the percolation prediction. For the alginate with higher molecular weight, the critical exponents, however, changed with alginate sample and concentration. The relative alginate concentration C(Alg)/C(Alg)* was found to serve as a criterion to divide these two transitions.

Transport properties of some cationic polysaccharides

The charge density effect on the behavior of some cationic polysaccharides in aqueous and nonaqueous (methanol) solutions was studied by viscometric and conductometric measurements. The polyelectrolytes investigated contain quaternary ammonium salt groups, N-alkyl-N,N-dimethyl-2-hydroxypropylene ammonium chloride, attached to a dextran backbone. This new class of polyelectrolytes has various linear charge density parameters, xi, located below and above the critical threshold value of counterions condensation, xi(c)=1(xi=0.25-3.18). The viscometric data revealed that all copolymers exhibit a polyelectrolyte behavior and were plotted in the terms of Rao equation. The conductometric measurements of solutions of these copolymers were presented as a function of polymer concentration and charge density. The results were analyzed within the Manning's theory and lower experimental values of the equivalent conductivity than the theoretical ones were found. Possible reasons of this discrepancy have been discussed. The interaction parameters were evaluated and these were found to depend on both the polymer concentration and the charge density. The conductometric behavior of these cationic polysaccharides has shown that counterion condensation is not a threshold phenomenon, their association to the charged groups of the polyions taking place for xi>1 as well as xi<1.

Solution behavior of linear-dendritic rod diblock copolymers in methanol

The solution behavior of spherical dendrimers as well as hybrid-linear dendritic diblock copolymers has been extensively studied, and the size, shape, and ability of these polymers to encapsulate small molecules have led to their comparison with traditional micelles. We have recently reported the synthesis of a new dendritic copolymer architecture, the linear-dendritic rod diblock copolymer, and in this work, we examine the solution behavior of these unique polymers in methanol at 25 degrees C, using dynamic light scattering and intrinsic viscosity measurements. The diblock copolymers consist of a linear poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(ethylene imine) diblock copolymer backbone around which poly(amido amine) branches have been divergently synthesized from the poly(ethylene imine) block. The hydrodynamic radii and the viscometric radii of the polymers were found to increase slowly with increasing generation up to generation 3.5; however, after generation 3.5, the radii were found to increase very rapidly. This increase can be explained by an elongation of the dendritic block into a more rodlike configuration and a corresponding breakdown of the spherical approximation used to calculate the radii. The intrinsic viscosity of the amine and ester terminated polymers was found to follow two very different trends at low generation; however, at higher generations, they followed similar, yet slightly different, curves with the values for the amine terminated polymers only a little larger than those of the ester terminated polymers. At low generations, the chemistry of the end groups and its interaction with the solvent were found to be more important, whereas at higher generations, the highly branched nature of the dendritic block was the more important factor. For the ester terminated polymers, a maximum in the intrinsic viscosity occurred at generation 1.5. Since this maximum occurred at a much lower generation number than is traditionally seen for spherical dendrimers, new scaling relations for the intrinsic viscosity of dendritic rod polymers were developed and were found to support this observation. A minimum in the intrinsic viscosity was also observed at generation 3.5 for the ester terminated polymers and a minimum or leveling off in the intrinsic viscosity at generation 4.0 was found for the amine terminated polymers, which can be attributed to the transitioning of the polymers to a more elongated, rodlike shape and the increased influence of the shape factor on the intrinsic viscosity.