Despite being more expensive than their water-based counterparts, oil-based drilling fluid are utilized because of their superior lubricating properties, good rheological features at high temperature, improved stability behavior, and effectiveness against all types of corrosion. Nanomaterial additives have recently attracted a lot of attention as an additive to improve the performance of oil-based drilling fluid, such as fluid loss property and rheology property. Among all the nanomaterials, graphene oxide (GO) is becoming a popular additive as it plays a role of fluid loss reducer, shale stabilizer and rheology property improver. However, due to the solubility issue, limited study has reported the usage of GO material in oil based mud. Herein, we have reported the successful synthesis of grafted GO via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), which disperse well in oil based solvent. The successful polymerization was verified by FTIR spectroscopy as well as Evolved gas analysis (EGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy. At simulated downhole temperatures and pressures, the performance of such grafted graphene materials was tested in oil-based drilling fluids. Results demonstrate the positive effect of thus produced grafted graphene materials on mud rheological behavior at temperature up to 350F and 10,000psi.

Application of grafted graphene in oil based drilling fluids

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ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.