No abstract

This paper reviews the major features of the cationic polymerization of 2‐vinylfuran, 2‐isopropenylfuran, 2‐vinyl‐5‐methylfuran, and 2‐isopropenyl‐5‐methylfuran, in methylene chloride using trifluoroacetic acid as initiator. Only the latter monomer gives polymers of regular structure in the temperature range −78 to 30°C. The others exhibit important side reactions leading to alkylation of the furan ring at 5C (when this is not methylated) and to polyunsaturated chains (if the carbon in the α position to the ring is tertiary). The kinetics of the polymerizations are affected by these side reactions. A brief analysis is made of the initiation, propagation, and termination reactions, and of the nature of the active species.

Microfluidic investigations of flow and transport in porous and fractured media have the potential to play a significant role in the development of future subsurface energy resource technologies. However, the majority of experimental systems to date are limited in applicability due to operating conditions and/or the use of engineered material micromodels. We have developed a high pressure and temperature microfluidic experimental system that allows for direct observations of flow and transport within geo-material micromodels (e.g. rock, cement) at reservoir conditions. In this manuscript, we describe the experimental system, including our novel micromodel fabrication method that works in both geo- and engineered materials and utilizes 3-D tomography images of real fractures as micromodel templates to better represent the pore space and fracture geometries expected in subsurface formations. We present experimental results that highlight the advantages of using real-rock micromodels and discuss potential areas of research that could benefit from geo-material microfluidic investigations. The experiments include fracture-matrix interaction in which water imbibes into the shale rock matrix from etched fractures, supercritical CO2 (scCO2) displacing brine in idealized and realistic fracture patterns, and three-phase flow involving scCO2-brine-oil.

No abstract