Synthesis of novel hydrophobic nanocomposite-modified silica as efficient shale inhibitor in fuel industry

Highly inhibitive and high-temperature-resistant shale inhibitors are required to be developed as water-based drilling fluids to accomplish the requirements of the drilling process. In this work, silica nanoparticles were grafted with hyperbranched APTMS and FOTS. The modified material and shale were analyzed by several characterizations such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-Ray diffractometer (XRD), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and water contact angle (WCA) measurements. The experimental results revealed that the developed material displayed outstanding shale inhibition properties, such as inhibition in the hot rolling recovery test reaching ≈96% compared to 60.40% by KCl standard test. Moreover, the swelling test of Na-Bentonite (Na-Bt) was significantly determined in the presence of a nanocomposite inhibitor accounting for around 86% in comparison to KCl which is ≈56%. This result represented the high effectiveness of the developed material to prevent the expansion of water (hydrophobic property) into the original shale which is significantly greater than KCl commercial inhibitor. This study can be suggested the design of a permanent shale inhibitor for Water-based mud (WBM) in the larger drilling operation.