Water-soluble polymers are of great interest to the oil and gas industry. Water-soluble polymers have been used to modify fluid rheology, to disperse inorganic particles in fluids, and to function as temporary barriers or plugs. The solubility of these polymers mostly depends on temperature and the dissolution usually starts when the polymer is in contact with water above a certain temperature. Rarely, a water-soluble polymer only starts to dissolve after a defined time in water at a certain temperature, i.e. having a delayed onset of dissolution. Such behavior can be quite beneficial for certain applications. Here we report the crosslinking of a water-soluble polymer with hydrolytically degradable crosslinkers. The dissolution of the polymer only starts after the crosslinkers are hydrolyzed in water. The time-to-dissolution at a given temperature can be controlled by changing the crosslinking density. We will present the chemistry used to crosslink the polymer and the characterization of the crosslinking. The time-to-dissolution of the polymer before and after crosslinking also indicates the formation of degradable crosslinking.

Delaying polymer dissolution with degradable crosslinking

247th National Meeting (2014)

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