Preparation of Polystyrene/Polyacrylamide Core-Shell Microspheres via Microfluidizer-Assistant Emulsification Template Methods for Oil Recovery Enhancement

Abstract

Abstract Polyacrylamide and its derivatives are commonly used functional polymers to enhance oil recovery in a water-flooding oilfield. By using its hydrophilic amide group to swell and gel in stratum water, it can plug the fractures and pore throats of underground. In order to improve the strength of polyacrylamide material, the polystyrene/polyacrylamide (PS/PAM) core-shell microspheres were successfully prepared by the microfluidizer-assistant emulsification template method. The influences of different preparation conditions, such as the different types and concentrations of surfactants, organic phase and oil/water ratios, on the morphology, diameter, and distribution of corresponding PS core have been systematically studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and laser light scattering analysis (LLS). Moreover, by the integration of porous meshes onto both inlet and outlet of the interaction chamber, the resultant polymer microspheres could be tuned larger due to the dual homogenization. Our procedure can provide a simple and general method to modulate the diameter of the polymer microspheres in the range of 30 nm to 3 μm with a narrow polydispersity index (PDI) of <0.2. The PS/PAM core-shell microspheres exhibited good water plugging performance.