Volume 142, Issue 13 e56667
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Preparation and Performance of Shear-Resistant and Fast-Dissolving Drag Reduction With Multiple Cross-Linking Effects

Huimin Dai

Huimin Dai

College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China

BOE Technology Group Co. Ltd, Chengdu, China

Contribution: Conceptualization (lead), Data curation (lead), ​Investigation (lead), Methodology (lead), Writing - original draft (lead)

Search for more papers by this author
Jian Lan

Jian Lan

College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China

Contribution: Formal analysis (equal), ​Investigation (equal), Validation (equal)

Search for more papers by this author
Zou He

Zou He

College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China

Contribution: Formal analysis (equal), ​Investigation (lead), Validation (equal)

Search for more papers by this author
Liyin Zhang

Liyin Zhang

College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China

Contribution: Formal analysis (supporting), ​Investigation (supporting), Validation (supporting)

Search for more papers by this author
Ying Xiong

Ying Xiong

PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gas Field Co., Res Inst Nat Gas Technol, Chengdu, People's Republic of China

Contribution: Conceptualization (equal), Funding acquisition (lead)

Search for more papers by this author
Shanshan Dai

Corresponding Author

Shanshan Dai

College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China

Correspondence:

Shanshan Dai ([email protected])

Contribution: Project administration (lead), Supervision (lead), Writing - review & editing (lead)

Search for more papers by this author
First published: 02 January 2025

Funding: This work was supported by Youth and Middle-aged Scientific and Technological Innovation Leading Talents Program of the Corps (2020CX020300).

ABSTRACT

The development of shear-resistant drag reducer agent (DRA) is crucial for enhancing oil recovery, especially during high-speed pumping and fracturing processes where polymer networks are prone to damage, leading to the reduction of the drag reduction (DR) performance. To address this issue, the introduction of nano-silica into the polymer structure, while maintaining good DR, endows the DRA with better shear resistance and salt resistance through its unique cross-linking mode. In this study, a novel shear-resistant and fast-dissolving drag reducer was synthesized through free-radical polymerization using acrylamide (AM), acrylic acid (AA), 2-acrylamide-2-methylpropyl sulfonic acid (AMPS) and KH570 modified nano-silica. The comprehensive properties of drag reducer were studied using conductivity and dissolution time test, microscopic morphology analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, and rheological test. The results suggestion that the PAPO-10@SiO2 exhibits outstanding characteristics, including rapid dissolution (4 min), excellent salt resistance (DR rate up to 80.41% at a polymer concentration of 500 mg/L) and nano-silica concentration of 1.5 wt%. Moreover, the mechanism of drag reduction was proposed that nano-silica connects the molecular chains through multiple cross-linking effects of chemical cross-linking and physical adsorption, which enhances the stability of the network structure and prevents the destruction of the molecular chain structure by shear force effectively (viscosity retention of 76.9% after shearing for 40 min at 90°C and 170 s−1). In summary, this study provides valuable insights for developing polymers with both shear resistance and dissolution properties in aqueous solutions.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.