Potential of a β-Cyclodextrin/Adamantane Modified Copolymer in Enhancing Oil Recovery through Host–Guest Interactions

In this work, a novel enhanced oil recovery (EOR) copolymer, which is expected to be an alternative to currently used polymers, was successfully synthesized through free radical micellar copolymerization of acrylamide, acrylic acid, 6-acrylamide-β-cyclodextrin (N-β-CD), and acrylamide-adamantane (N-ADA). The copolymer was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The results demonstrated that because of the incorporation of ADA and β-CD groups, host–guest interactions occurred in the aqueous solution, which subsequently improved the salt tolerance, temperature resistance, shear resistance, and viscoelastic properties of the synthesized polymer. Regarding the EOR performance, it was observed that 8.58% incremental oil was produced using this polymer after water flooding was exhausted. The superior properties make this novel polymer promising in enhancing oil recovery, particularly for reservoirs which have discarded polymer flooding techniques because of harsh conditions.