Synthesis and Properties of Aminoarylsulfonic Acid-Phenol-Formaldehyde Copolymer As Drilling Fluid Loss Reducer

Abstract

Aminoarylsulfonic acid-phenol-formaldehyde copolymers were prepared via solution condensation polymerization in this study. FT-IR tests showed the molecular structure of resulting products successfully. The effects of parameters of copolymerization including the ratio of aminoarylsulfonic acid to phenol, the molar percentage of formaldehyde, temperature and time of reaction on properties of copolymer for API filtration control were investigated in detail, and the former two factors played more important roles. Furthermore, the API fluid loss was affected not only by the molecular weight of copolymer but also its content in drilling fluid, which was already determined at different temperature. Therefore, it can be concluded that such copolymer exhibit good properties in drilling fluid loss control at high temperature (230°C) compared with sulphonated methyl phenolic resin. The morphologies of filter cakes showed that clay particles dispersed more uniformly in copolymer-treated drilling fluid than in untreated ones.

Keywords:

• Aminoarylsulfonic acid-phenol-formaldehyde copolymer
• drilling fluid loss reducer
• drilling fluid
• high temperature

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Opening Fund Project from State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering (Sichuan, China) for financial support (Contract No.: KF200903). Project also supported by Sichuan Youth Science &Technology Foundation (China) (Contract No.: 2010JG0051).