Guar gum improved electrolyte compatibility. These changes in properties result in increased use in different fields, like textile printing, explosives, and oil-water fracturing applications. Guar molecules have a tendency to aggregate during the hydraulic fracturing process, mainly due to intermolecular hydrogen bonding. These aggregates are detrimental to oil recovery because they clog the fractures, restricting the flow of oil. Cross-linking guar polymer chains prevents aggregation by forming metal – hydroxyl complexes. The first crosslinked guar gels were developed in the late ‘60’s. Several metal additives have been used for crosslinking, among them are chromium, aluminum, antimony, zirconium, and the more commonly used,
Hydrochloric acid water. However, the speciation of hydrochloric acid is more complicated than this simple equation implies. The structure of bulk water is infamously complex, and likewise, the formula HO is also a gross oversimplification of the true nature of the solvated proton, H, present in hydrochloric acid. A combined IR, Raman, X-ray and neutron diffraction study of concentrated solutions of hydrochloric acid revealed that the primary form of H in these solutions is HO, which, along with the chloride anion, is hydrogen-bonded to neighboring water molecules in several different ways. (In HO, the proton is sandwiched midway between two water molecules