Chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is surely a topic of interest, as conventional oil resources become more scarce and the necessity of exploiting heavy and unconventional oils increases. EOR methods based on polymer flooding, surfactant-polymer flooding and alkali-surfactant-polymer flooding are well established, but new challenges always emerge, which give impulse to the search for new solutions. Polymeric surfactants represent a very attractive alternative to these techniques, because they can provide simultaneously increase in water viscosity and decrease in interfacial tension, both beneficial for the efficiency of the process. The analysis of the literature shows that the use of polymeric surfactants as displacing fluid has the potential to improve the performances of EOR in some cases. However, the synthesis are often challenging and costly and the available data about the real performances of such systems in oil recovery are still sparse. This holds back the possibility of a significant use of polymeric surfactants for EOR. This review collects the relevant work done in the last decades in developing and testing polymeric surfactants for EOR, with a particular emphasis on the chemical aspects, the patent literature and bio-based systems

Conductive hydrogels have emerged as fascinating materials for flexible electronics because of their integrated conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and the possibility to introduce several smart functions. However, the swelling of hydrogels in aqueous environments significantly reduces their applicability where contact with water is unavoidable. In this study, a physically cross‐linked composite hydrogel is proposed, that is transparent, highly stretchable, anti‐swelling, capable of autonomous self‐healing, adhesive, and anti‐freezing. The hydrogel is synthesized through a simple one‐step photopolymerization in a novel deep eutectic solvent (DES)/water system. Dynamic physical interactions, including hydrophobic interaction, hydrogen bonding, and electrostatic interactions, confer remarkable transparency (92%), self‐healing capability (up to 94%), good adhesion to a wide array of substrates (91 to 199 kPa), high toughness (1.46 MJ m⁻³), excellent elongation at break (up to 2064%), and resistance to swelling in water (equilibrium swelling ratio of 3% in water for 30 days) even in solutions at different pH (pH 1–11), and in other solvents. The incorporation of a DES contributes to exceptional anti‐freezing performance. The transparent sensor achieves multifunctional sensing and human motion detection with high sensitivity and stability. Notably, the sensor demonstrates information transmission underwater through stretching and pressing, showcasing its immense potential in underwater flexible devices.

The intrinsic self-healing ability of polyketone (PK) chemically modified into furan and/or OH groups containing derivatives is presented. Polymers bearing different ratios of both functional groups were cross-linked via furan/bis-maleimide (Diels-Alder adducts) and hydrogen bonding interactions (aliphatic and aromatic OH groups). The resulting thermosets display tuneable softening points (peak of tan (δ)) from 90 to 137 °C as established by DMTA. It is found that the cross-linked system containing only furan groups shows the highest softening temperature. On the other hand, systems displaying the combination of Diels-Alder adducts and hydrogen bonding (up to 60 mol % of -OH groups) do not show any change in modulus between heating cycles (i.e. factually a quantitative recovery of the mechanical behaviour). It is believed that the novelty of these tuneable thermosets can offer significant advantages over conventional reversible covalent systems. The synergistic reinforcement of both interactions resists multiple heating/healing cycles without any loss of mechanical properties even for thermally healed broken samples