Insight into thermo-mechanical enhancement of polymer nanocomposites coated microsand proppants for hydraulic fracturing

Cross-linked polymer nanocomposite networks coated nano sand light-weight proppants for hydraulic fracturing applications

“…The first layer of cross-linked PS-PMMA/DVB nanonetworks onto the surface of nano sand was prepared by polymerizing monomers mixture of S and MMA, cross-linker DVB, with the aid of AIBN at 70 ℃. The detailed formation and the mechanistic pathway for the cross-linked PS-PMMA/DVB nanonetworks can be found in our previous reports [2,28,33,68,70] . At 70 ℃, the AIBN produces free radicals, and the monomers are converted into free radicals instantaneously.…”

“…Even though the frac is abundantly available and has a low cost due to its high density, low crush resistance (6000 psi), and relatively decreased sphericity and roundness, it often causes poor fracture permeability [2,27,28] . Conversely, although the ceramic proppants have very high crush resistance (up to 20,000 psi) and thermal stability, the settling rate in fracturing fluid is high, which is ascribed to their high specific gravity values (3 g/cm 3 ) [2,[28][29][30][31][32][33] . Hence, various conventional hydraulic fracturing operations exploit large volumes of water-based hydraulic fluid to enhance the well permeability, potentially producing large amounts of wastewater as flow back and pose severe environmental threats [33][34][35][36][37][38][39] .…”

“…Conversely, although the ceramic proppants have very high crush resistance (up to 20,000 psi) and thermal stability, the settling rate in fracturing fluid is high, which is ascribed to their high specific gravity values (3 g/cm 3 ) [2,[28][29][30][31][32][33] . Hence, various conventional hydraulic fracturing operations exploit large volumes of water-based hydraulic fluid to enhance the well permeability, potentially producing large amounts of wastewater as flow back and pose severe environmental threats [33][34][35][36][37][38][39] . Therefore, water-based fracturing technology has recently attracted the attention of scientists, and it requires the development of ultra-lightweight proppant [40][41][42][43][44] .…”

“…Our group has recently introduced a two-layer coating approach for the surface modification of frac sand using sequential coating polymer nanocomposites with graphene or boron nitride nanosheets. Interestingly, the two-layer coating sand proppants exhibited a crush resistance to a maximum of 10,000-14,000 psi [2,28,33,[68][69][70] . However, practical applications of these proppants are limited due to their high specific gravity values and poor dispersibility in water-based fracturing fluid.…”

Sulfonated mesoporous polystyrene-1D multiwall carbon nanotube nanocomposite as potential adsorbent for efficient removal of xylene isomers from aqueous solution

“…Since there is a growing tendency to use adsorption as an effective tool for removing dissolved aromatic hydrocarbons, discovering new porous materials exhibiting very high adsorption capacity with rapid regeneration characteristics is inevitable. Moreover, numerous absorbent polymers or porous polymer-based systems are exploited in oil and gas [9,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] and other industries [54,[58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65] . Carbon nanostructures-based composite adsorbents are emerging as potential adsorbents for removing dissolved organic compounds from water solutions [66][67][68] .…”