Design of Water-Soluble Polymers: Linking Kinetics, Structure, and Application Performance

众所周知，聚合物材料在日常生活和许多工业应用中是普遍存在的。除了包装和建筑材料，聚合物还用于纺织品、涂料、传感器、健康科学和化妆品等。该研究计划的重点是设计聚合物材料的一个子集：水溶性聚合物。这些大分子在水中溶解和/或溶胀，以实现各种应用的特定目标。 例如，化学强化采油（EOR）使用稀释的聚合物溶液注入来冲洗部分枯竭的油藏中的残余油。用水或CO2冲洗储层的效果有限，因为低粘度流体会找到阻力最小的路径并绕过大部分残余油。用于提高采收率的聚合物驱是一个发展中的领域，仍有很大的改进空间;聚合物将根据特定的油藏条件进行设计，以获得上级应用性能。随着自然资源的消耗，关注长期石油回收而不是立即解决方案比以往任何时候都更重要。水溶性聚合物的另一个应用是絮凝，其中聚合物被添加到受污染的水中以促进否则难以去除的杂质的聚集。聚电解质可以中和带电杂质，使得杂质附聚以形成大颗粒并从溶液中沉降出来。聚合物絮凝剂由于其多功能性、效率和相对低的成本而具有吸引力。 除了EOR和絮凝之外，水溶性聚合物还有许多其他应用，包括水溶性薄膜和药物递送系统。然而，目前用于这些应用的许多材料是使用试错法开发的，这导致了资源的浪费。设计聚合物材料可以为目标应用定制具有理想性能的定制聚合物;拟议的研究计划解决了上述应用所面临的当前挑战，包括EOR聚合物的稳定性和絮凝剂设计的行业特定需求。目标是在每种材料的合成步骤、聚合物结构和最终应用性能之间建立联系。 整个拟议研究计划中使用的设计框架将通过依赖先验知识，精心设计的实验和有针对性的分析来充分利用可用资源。一个连续的和迭代的方法将导致最佳设计的材料为每个应用程序。此外，鉴于聚合物材料设计所需的各种知识和技能，该研究计划将为许多高素质的人员提供机会，以获得聚合物反应工程，应用统计，聚合物合成和表征以及产品应用性能评估方面的经验。

It is well-known that polymeric materials are pervasive in daily life and in many industrial applications. In addition to packaging and construction materials, polymers are also used in textiles, coatings, sensors, health science and cosmetics, and more. This research program focuses on designing a subset of polymeric materials: water-soluble polymers. These macromolecules dissolve and/or swell in water to achieve specific goals for various applications. For example, chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) uses dilute polymer solution injections to flush residual oil from partially depleted oil reservoirs. Flushing the reservoir with water or CO2 has limited effectiveness, as the low viscosity fluids find the path of least resistance and bypass much of the residual oil. Polymer flooding for EOR is a developing field that still has significant room for improvement; polymers will be designed with specific reservoir conditions in mind for superior application performance. As natural resources are being consumed, it is more important than ever to focus on long-term oil recovery rather than immediate solutions. Another application of water-soluble polymers is flocculation, where polymers are added to contaminated water to promote aggregation of impurities that would otherwise be difficult to remove. Polyelectrolytes can neutralize the charged impurities, such that the impurities agglomerate to form large particles and settle out of solution. Polymer flocculants are attractive because of their versatility, efficiency, and relatively low cost. Water-soluble polymers have many other applications beyond EOR and flocculation, including water-soluble films and drug delivery systems. However, many of the materials that are currently being used for these applications were developed using trial-and-error approaches, which has resulted in wasted resources. Designing polymeric materials makes it possible to tailor-make custom polymers with desirable properties for target applications; the proposed research program addresses current challenges faced by the above applications including the stability of EOR polymers and the industry-specific needs for flocculant design. The goal is to draw links between the synthesis steps, the polymer structure, and the final application performance for each material. The design framework that will be used throughout the proposed research program will make the most of available resources by relying on prior knowledge, carefully designed experiments and targeted analysis. A sequential and iterative approach will lead to optimally designed materials for each application. Also, given the varied knowledge and skills needed for the design of polymeric materials, this research program will provide an opportunity for many highly qualified personnel to gain experience in polymer reaction engineering, applied statistics, polymer synthesis and characterization, and product application performance evaluation.