Amphoteric hydrophobic associative polymer: I synthesis, solution properties and effect on solution properties of surfactant

Using acrylamide, acrylic acid and octadecyl dimethyl allyl ammonium chloride as monomers, a kind of amphoteric hydrophobic associative polymer was prepared by solution polymerization. The polymer’s molecular weight is from 0.71 to 1.46 × 106 g/mol. And the hydrolysis degree of the polymer is about 14.5%. The polymer solution exhibits good association interaction, and the higher the hydrophobic group content is, the stronger the association interaction is. The adding of the polymer makes the surface tension curves of the mixture solution deviate from the parent solution curve. Both the hydrophobic group content and polymer solution’s concentration exaggerate the deviation with their self-quantity increase. There exist an interaction between the polymer and surfactant, which almost has no direct relationship with the surfactant charge. The major interaction could be a hydrophobic association interaction.