RHEOLOGY OF HYDROPHOBICALLY MODIFIED POLYMERS

L. Z. Rogovina, V. G. Vasil'ev,
N. A. Churochkina, and T. A. Pryakhina

UDC 532.135:541.64:54-148

A study has been made of the rheological characteristics 
of the aqueous and water-salt solutions and gels of one class of hydrophobically 
modified polymers: acrylamide copolymers with a hydrophobic monomer 
which can be either acrylamide with a hydrophobic "tail" consisting 
of 9 or 12 carbon atoms or methacrylate with the same "tail." It has 
been shown that a sharp growth in the viscosity of the solutions and 
in the limiting stress, the highest Newtonian viscosity, and the elastic 
modulus of the gels is the greater, the larger the length and the 
number of hydrophobic groups in the copolymer and the smaller the 
amount of a surfactant in the process of its synthesis, which leads 
to a hydrophobicity growth of the copolymer. Consideration has been 
given to the role of the number of charges introduced into the copolymer 
apart from the hydrophobic groups and to other factors determining 
the rheological properties of the gels and their resistance to temperature.

A. N. Nesmeyanov Institute of Element-Organic Compounds, 
Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; email: rogovina@ineos.ac.ru. 
Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 76, No. 3, pp. 
48-54, May-June, 2003. Original article submitted December 
17, 2002.