The interfacial dilational viscoelastic properties of hydrophobically associating block copolymer composed of acrylamide (AM) and a low amount of 2-phenoxylethyl acrylate (POEA) (< 1.0 mol%) at the octane-water interfaces were studied by means of the interfacial tension relaxation method. The dependencies of interfacial dilational elasticity and viscous component on the dilational frequency were investigated. The interaction of hydrophobically associating block copolymer [P(AM/POEA)] with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SIDS) has been explored. The results show that at lower frequency, the dilational elasticity for different concentration copolymer is close to zero; at higher frequency, the dilational elasticity shows no change with increased frequency; At moderate frequency (10(-3)-1 Hz), the dilational elasticity decreased with a decrease in the dilational frequency. The results show that the hydrophobic groups of [P(AM/POEA)] chains can be associated by inter- or intrachain liaisons in water solution. The dilational viscous component for P(AM/POEA) comes forth a different maximum value at different frequencies when the polymer concentration is different. It is generally believed that the dilational viscous component reflects the summation of the various microscopic relaxation processes at and near the interface and different relaxation processes have different characteristic frequencies. The spectrum of dilational viscous component may appear more than once maximum values at different frequencies. The influence of SIDS on the limiting dilational elasticity and viscous component for polymer solution was elucidated. For 5000 ppm polymer solution, the limiting dilational elasticity decreased with an increase in SDS concentration. The dilational viscous component passed through a maximum value with a rise in the dilational frequency, which appeared at different frequency when SIDS concentration is different; and the higher is the concentration, the lower is the dilational frequency. It can be explained that macromolecules may be substituted by SDS molecules in the interface and the interaction of molecules decrease, which makes the limiting dilational elasticity decrease. For 200 ppm polymer solution, the limiting dilational elasticity increased firstly and then decreased with SIDS concentration increasing. This may be explained that the interfacial polymer concentration is so low that SDS molecules absorbed in the interface dominate dilational properties of the interfacial film even at very low SDS concentration. However, SIDS molecules can gradually substitute the polymer molecules in the interface with a rise in SDS concentration, which results in the decrease in the limiting dilational elasticity. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.