Characterization of polyacrylamides used in enhanced oil recovery

Polyacrylamides can be readily characterized using techniques such as IR spectroscopy, ¹³C-NMR, elementary analysis, TGA, and x-ray diffraction. The first three techniques can also be used quantitatively to measure the degree of hydrolysis of the polymers, without the need to know accurately the weight of the sample. The presence of inorganic salts, such as Na₂SO₄, Na₄(CO₃)SO₄, and Na₂CO₃, is readily detected via IR or wide-angle x-ray diffraction. No evidence of crystallinity is found in the samples studied.