Controlled graft copolymerization of hydrophobic monomers onto guar gum derivatives

POLY 166

Veronica K. Holmes, vkholmes@yahoo.com and William H. Daly, chdaly@lsu.edu. Department of Chemistry, Louisiana State University, 744 Choppin Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-1804, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-1804
Guar gum and its derivatives, such as carboxymethyl guar gum (CMG) are widely used in the oil and gas industry. If the required subsequent degradation of the guar gum yielded a surfactant, removal of the guar gum fragments would be facilitated by emulsification. Introducing hydrophobic substituents, poly(n-butyl)acrylate, to the polymer backbone of CMG leads to increased hydrophobicity, which provides the potential for fragmented guar surfactancy . Both the RAFT and nitroxide mediated free radical systems offer suitable methods for controlling the molecular weight of the polymeric grafts. CMG grafts have been synthesized by varying both the number of polymeric side chains and by varying the length of the side chains. Maintaining a low DP for the hydrophobic side chains is critical to assure formation of cross linked gels. CMG g-butyl acrylate or -lauryl acrylate materials were produced with weight gains ranging from 11.66% to 71.87% and with low DP's (3-6).