摘要：As driven by the increase in global fuel demand and decrease in worldwide reserves of conventional oil, it is important to develop new production technologies for heavy oil. In this work, copolymers PAAI7 , PAAI10 , and PAAI15 were synthesized and evaluated as potential viscosity reducers for heavy oil. iso ‐Tridecyloxypolyethylene glycol acrylates (I13Cx AA, x = 7, 10, 15), acrylic amide (AM), and 2‐acrylamido‐2‐methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS) were polymerized to give the copolymers PAAIx , respectively. Copolymers PAAIx were characterized by FTIR, 1 H NMR spectroscopy, and TGA and showed good thermal stabilities as the decomposition temperature was above 350°C. Their viscosity‐average molecular weights were measured as in the range between 6.53 × 10 6 and 10.58 × 10 6 g/mol. The effects of temperature, shear rate, and salinity on the viscosity of polymer solutions were studied, and PAAIx had reasonable rheological properties. The solutions of PAAIx in formation water could emulsify heavy oil sample to form oil‐in‐water emulsion when mass ratio of oil:water was in the range of 6:4‐2:8, respectively. The rates of reduction in viscosity of emulsions compared with that of original oil sample were 53.5%‐97.5% at 50°C under shear rate of 20 s −1 . The effects of oil:water ratio, emulsifying temperature, and shear rate on the viscosities of emulsions were extensively studied, and the effect of the polymer structure on the emulsification and viscosity reduction of heavy oil was also discussed. Among three copolymers, PAAI15 formed the most stable emulsion with heavy oil and the emulsion had the lowest viscosity. PAAI15 had the potential for further study.
