Synthesis of novel polymer nanocomposite for water-based drilling fluids

The Polymer nanocomposite have fascinated the strong interest due to its capitative properties and potential use for smart drilling fluids in the petroleum industry. Water based drilling fluids are employed for drilling oil and gas wells to extract hydrocarbons from reservoirs. The formulation of drilling fluid includes various additives to control rheological and filtration properties. For this purpose, a novel associative hydrophobic polymer-based nanocomposite was synthesized using functionalized carbon nanotubes, acrylamide, maleic acid and 2-Acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid via solution polymerization technique. The chemical structure of novel polymer nanocomposite was characterized with Fourier transform spectroscopy to confirm the presence of covalent bond (ester linkage) between hydroxyl group from functionalized carbon nanotubes and carboxylic group from malic acid. The rheological properties were evaluated by mixing appropriate amount of polymer nanocomposite with base drilling fluid (modified drilling fluids) at 25℃. The steady shear rheology experiments showed that increasing the concentration polymer nanocomposite in the base drilling fluid resulted in significant increase in viscosity, shear stress and gel strength of modified drilling fluid. The dynamic rheological experiments of polymer nanocomposite were also performed with two different concentration in the base drilling fluid to access the viscoelastic properties. The synthesized polymer nanocomposite can be used as one of the additives in water-based drilling fluids to modify rheological.