Dynamics simulation on the associative properties of amphiphilic functional monomer modified polyacrylamide copolymers

A kind of amphiphilic functional monomer was selected to modify polyacrylamide (PAM) or partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM). The relative properties of the modified polyacrylamide (HM-PAM) and modified partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HM-HPAM) such as radius of gyration (R (g)), hydrodynamic radius (R (H)), and radial distribution functions (RDFs) have been studied to find the intrinsic relation between the microstructure of the polymer chain and the intrinsic viscosities with changing the amount of modified monomers from 1% to 4%. The simulation results show that, compared to HPAM, HM-HPAM has a better performance in increasing viscosity when the percentage of modified monomers is 2% and has a stronger salt tolerance when the modified monomers is 4%. Furthermore, a complex hydrogen bonding network was revealed with the analysis of radial distribution functions (RDFs) and the pair correlation function was used to investigate the diffusivity of Na+ and carbon atoms in the COO- group.