Preparation and clay stabilization properties of cationic acrylamide polymer containing β-cyclodextrin

In this study, a new family of short-chain cationic polymer, P(A-β-CD/AM/ATMAC), was synthesized via free radical-initiated aqueous system co-polymerization of acrylamide (AM), allyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (ATMAC), and allyl-β-cyclodextrin (A-β-CD). The optimum conditions of the co-polymerization process are obtained by single-factor experiment: the reaction temperature was 40 °C, the reaction time was 3 h, the initiator dosage was 0.15 wt%, the chain transfer dosage was 0.20 wt%, the total monomer concentration was 25.0 wt%, the monomer molar ratio (AM:A-β-CD:ATMAC) was 65:5:30, and the anti-swelling rate of the polymer can reach 95.2 %. The cationic β-cyclodextrin polymer was structurally characterized using FT-IR and 1H NMR. The weight-average molecular weight of P(A-β-CD/AM/ATMAC) is (1.96 ± 0.05) × 104 g/mol, which was measured by using static laser light scattering. The P(A-β-CD/AM/ATMAC) can not only effectively avoid plugging and reservoir damage in the reservoir with ultra-low permeability (1 md < K0 < 10 md) but also enhance the flushing resistance, temperature tolerance, and the capability of inhibiting particle dispersion. On the bases of XRD, SEM analyses, the clay stabilization mechanism of P(A-β-CD/AM/ATMAC) is preliminary discussed.