The research collaboration with Prof. Hussein Hoteit’s group from Ali I. Al-Naimi Petroleum Engineering Research Center focuses on improving the fundamental understanding of one of the most promising techniques to chemically enhance oil recovery from conventional reservoirs, namely polymer flooding. We proposed an approach that integrates microfluidics and single-molecule tracking, as a powerful tool to study the dynamics of single chains in pore-scale flow, in an environment that mimics porous medium. The findings exposed unprecedented fundamental insights into polymer transport mechanisms in geological porous media. We captured the first direct dynamic visualization and molecular-level description of the three main polymer retention mechanisms: absorption, mechanical entrapment, and hydrodynamic entrapment. Furthermore, the collaboration extended to the development of a new method for the synthesis of dye-labeled polymers, which was also patented. It provides an easy and safe method for fluorescence labeling of a wide range of polymers (any polymers containing carboxyl groups or groups that can be functionalized into carboxylic groups) with molecular weight up to 20 megadalton.