Crosslinking copolymerization of butyl methacrylate with a small amount of divinylbenzene (DVB) was carried out using single‐electron transfer‐living radical polymerization initiated with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) and catalyzed by Cu(0)/N‐ligand in N,N‐dimethylformamide to produce a highly oil‐absorbing gel. The polymerization, gelation process, and oil‐absorbing properties were studied in detail. Analysis of monomer conversion with reaction time showed that the polymerization followed first‐order kinetics for both linear and crosslinking polymerization before gelation. Higher levels of DVB led to earlier gelation and the influence of N‐ligand on gelation was also significant. Under optimal conditions, oil absorption of the prepared gel to chloroform could reach 42.1 g·g−1. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2013, 51, 3233–3239

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Profile control agent is important to the enhanced oil recovery technique. A self-crosslinking polyamideamine-epichlorohydrin (i.e. a kind of profile control agent) was fabricated and the application properties were investigated. Changes of viscosity and pH values in the gelation process were also studied. The profile control agent can be self-crosslinked at the temperature of the reservoir with injection, formation or tap water. The proper solid content and pH value of the profile control agent can be 12 wt-% and 8, respectively. The viscosity is stable at early part of the gelation process and then rose whereas the pH values show opposite trend. Sand packs flooding experiments showed the plugging ability of the profile control agent is good.