Polymer high precision techniques

Polymers that have been suggested for mobility control in oil reservoirs include polyacrylamides, hydroxy ethyl cellulose, and modified polysaccharides which are produced either by fermentation or by more conventional chemical processes. In this paper the solution properties of these polymers are presented and compared for tertiary oil recovery applications. Among the properties discussed are non-Newtonian character for different environmental conditions (electrolytes and temperature), filterability, and long term stability. The behavior of these water soluble polymers in solution can be correlated with the effective molecular size which can be measured by the intrinsic viscosity technique. A low-shear capillary viscometer with a high precision and a capability of covering low shear rates (such as 10 sec - - for a 10 cp fluid) has been designed to measure the viscosities. The measurement of viscosities at such slow flow conditions is necessitated... 

Anionic polymerization of styrenes is a highly useful technique for the synthesis of polystyrenes with precisely adjustable molecular weights and molecular weight distributions and is applied for the synthesis of structurally well-defined polymers such as end-functionalized polymers and block copolymers. 

We have applied high-precision diffraction analysis to monomers, oligomers, and polymers based on thiophene residues, in the form of single crystals, of powders, of cast thick films, and even as thin films prepared using the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. Preliminary results encourage us to perform further detailed studies on diffraction techniques suitable for well-ordered thin films, which are of interest for non-linear optics and for electronic applications. 

NIR is widely used for rapid and nondestructive analysis in industries such as agriculture, food, pharmaceuticals, textiles, cosmetics, and polymer production. NIR has several advantages. In addition to nondestructive and rapid analysis, several components can be assayed simultaneously. The sample is supplied to the photometer without pretreatment. Both dry and wet materials can be accepted as a sample. Therefore, both aqueous and solid fermented samples can be accepted. NIR is an assay technique with high precision, and on-line measurement is available with fiber optics. These characteristics of NIR are an excellent match for the requirements of monitoring systems for the fermentation process. NIR will be increasingly apt for fermentation process monitoring. 

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