Hydrophobically associating polymers and their interactions with rod-like micelles

Several families of anionic and cationic hydrophobically associating acrylamide-based copolymers have been synthesized. This study focuses on the characterization in aqueous environments of water-soluble copolymers in which low levels of alkyl, i.e. methylene, units are incorporated into the polymer chain structure. These hydrophobic monomers have built-in surfactant character; therefore, no non-polymerizable surfactants are required in the preparation of these copolymer materials. These hydrophobically associating copolymers are shown to possess both polyelectrolyte and hydrophobic character, especially as the ionic strength of the solution is varied. The results confirm that, even at low concentrations of hydrophobe (typically ≤ 1 mol%), interesting solution properties are observed, i.e. enhanced rheology as compared to its non-associating parent, marked time-dependent rheology at low shear rates, ‘anti-polyelectrolyte effect’ in high-ionic-strength solutions and the ability to interact preferentially with hydrophobically associating rod-like micelles. These latter materials are capable of forming highly viscoelastic solutions themselves. The rheological properties of these latter solution mixtures are very sensitive to the fraction of each component in the mixture and to the length of the alkyl chain copolymerized into the acrylamide chain backbone.