Environmental-Friendly, Long-Lastingly Moist Phase Change Gel with Tunable Cross-Linking Time for Effective Borehole Sealing

Flexible environmental phase change gel (EPCG) is a promising and attractive material for borehole sealing due to its relatively lower usage, tunable cross-linking time, and potential degradable properties. However, conventional borehole sealing materials lack a lower manufacturing cost, lower reaction temperature, remarkable antimold function, and admirable hole sealing performance for long-term high-performance borehole sealing. Hence, it remains a critical challenge to realize a flexible phase-change gel featuring tunable cross-linking time, antimold ability and degradability, and long-lasting moist performance for high-performance borehole sealing. Herein, we illustrate a facile approach to fabricate the borehole sealing materials based on environmentally friendly, antimold, long-lasting moist composite phase-change gel fabricated from a modified cellulose gel polymer network. The prepared phase change gel presents adjustable cross-linking time with the initial setting time of 30–60 min, which could be used to seal holes with different drilling parameters. Furthermore, the fabricated gel illustrates reliable water retentiveness performance and antimold ability, assuring the long-period borehole sealing effect. Furthermore, EPCG has been applied for borehole sealing and shows great sealing ability and gas extraction performance. Therefore, this work paves the way to fabricate a flexible phase-change gel featuring tunable cross-linking time, antimold ability, and long-lasting moist performance for high performance borehole sealing.