ИСТИНА

Viscoelastic solutions of WLMs are widely used as thickeners in liquids for hydro fracturing. Implementation of macromolecules of polymer into WLMs could improve viscoelastic properties of their solutions. At the same time such hybrid materials may retain their responsiveness to hydrocarbons that defines their application in oil industry. Recently, the effect of the addition of poly(4-vinylpiridine) (P4VP) on viscoelastic properties of the solutions of linear WLMs of potassium oleate in the presence of salt KCl was studied.1 Solubilization of polymer by the micelles caused the drop of viscoelastic properties of the system, which was attributed to the polymer-induced shortening of micelles. Increase of salt content in the solutions of WLMs provides the transition from linear to branched micelles, and at high salinity formation of multiconnected network of WLMs was observed. Solubilization of the polymer macromolecules by branching points of micelles could result in their reinforcement and improvement of viscoelastic properties of micellar solutions. This effect was not previously studied in literature. However, solutions of hybrid WLMs with embedded polymer chains can easily phase separate and have limited ratio between concentrations of the components (surfactant, polymer, salt) for the formation of homogeneous system. To investigate the effect of the variation of concentration of inorganic salt KCl on the amount of polymer P4VP solubilized by WLMs of the anionic surfactant potassium oleate phase diagram polymer-salt was plotted. The homogeneity of the solutions was verified by visual inspection.