Novel cationic copolymeric surfactants were designed and synthesized by the quaternization of the
copolymer. The synthesized route passes through a two-step reaction, initially including the copolymerization of methacrylic acid (MAA) with 1-vinylimidazole (VIM), followed by the quaternization of the
nitrogen atom in imidazole ring present in the obtained poly(VIM-co- MAA) (AI1-5)with different molar
ratios, with methyl- and ethyl iodide, respectively to form AISM1-5 and AISE1-5. The chemical structure
of the prepared copolymers and cationic polymeric surfactants was confirmed using different spectroscopic techniques such as FT-IR and 1
H NMR. The surface-active properties of the synthesized cationic
polymeric surfactants were examined. Finema-Ross (F-R) and Kelen-Tudos (K-T) methods were studied
from the elemental analysis data, which included the evaluation of the nitrogen content (N%) in prepared
copolymers. The monomer reactivity ratios are r1 = 0.157; r2 = 0.966 by F-R and r1 = 0.122; r2 = 0.995) by
K-T methods that showed the value of r1r2 is less than the unity (0.152), which indicates the random distribution. The results showed that in sea water, AISE4 is the most distinctive as a petro-dispersant in
undiluted form. As well, in diluted and undiluted forms of AISE4, the best petro-collecting capacity is
observed on the surface of distilled water.