Effect of Ultra-High Temperature Degradation on the Physical Properties and Chemical Structure of an AMPS-Based Copolymer Oil-Well Cement Additive PADIM in Aqueous Solution

2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS) based copolymer fluid loss agent is a kind of widely utilized additive in oil-well cement. However, when applied in ultra-high temperature (UHT) formation environment, its fluid loss control efficiency is significantly declined due to the thermal degradation behavior, and corresponding mechanism study is still lacking. Regarding the above issue, this work synthesized one representative copolymer fluid loss agent PADIM and investigated its thermal degradation mechanism in UHT aqueous environment, which was polymerized by AMPS, N, N-dimethylacrylamide (DMAA), itaconic acid (IA) and methacryloxyethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (MTC). The aim of this paper was to provide a theoretical guidance for the futural structural design of the fluid loss agents for oil well cement slurry at UHTs. The copolymer solution was subjected to isothermal aging at 180-240 °C for 1.5 h or 6.0 h (to simulate short-period and long-period aging, respectively), and the aged products were further analyzed. It was found that the thermal decomposition onset temperature of the copolymer solid was 294.6 °C. However, its thermal stability in aqueous solution was significantly lower, with substantial main chain breakage and functional group transformations occurring below 240 °C. As a result, the apparent viscosity and average molecular weight were significantly reduced from 4216 mPa·s and 31,666 Da before aging to 107.4 mPa·s and 8590 Da after aging at 240 °C for 6.0 h. Meanwhile, the side groups (-SO₃^- and -COO^-) were removed and the unsaturated alkenes were produced due to main chain degradation. In terms of application performance, the fluid loss control ability of the aged product diminished gradually from 22 mL to 196 mL as the aging temperature increased from room temperature to 210 °C. This decline was attributed to a reduction in molecular weight and a decrease in product adsorption capacity caused by the removal of side groups.