Evaluation of Acrylamide/α-Lipoic Acid Statistical Copolymers as Degradable Water-Soluble Kinetic Gas Hydrate Inhibitors.

ABSTRACT: Readily degradable low-dose hydrate inhibitors are of great significance for flow assurance in the petroleum industry. Recently, α-lipoic acid (LA) was shown to undergo ring-opening reaction via reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer copolymerization with acrylamides to introduce labile disulfide bonds into the stable vinyl polymer backbone. Here, LA was copolymerized with acryloyl morpholine (AM) to evaluate their performance as kinetic hydrate inhibitors. Degradability was confirmed for the copolymers with 20 mol.% LA (AM/LA20, M_n = 19 → 9 kDa) after disulfide reduction. Thermogravimetric analysis also indicated faster thermal degradation of AM/LA due to the incorporation of weaker S-S and S-C linkages. Increasing LA content reduced hydrophilicity, and the cop

SUBMITTER: Du CY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12694544 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature