Synthesis of self-generated proppants with tunable phase transition timing and high growth speed and their laboratory study method

The liquid-solid phase transition timing and strength growth speed are critical for self-generated proppants to perform well. However, there isn’t any convenient method to study the phase transition and following growth behavior of self-generated proppants in the laboratory. In this paper, self-generated proppants with tunable phase transition timing and high growth speed were proposed, which were then used as a research object to propose some study methods on the phase transition and following growth behavior of self-generated proppants. Meanwhile, two monitoring techniques have been suggested for the phase transition process of self-generated proppant, while five monitoring methods have been proposed for the growth process of the same, respectively. Including visual observation and monitoring time-dependent viscosity changes for former, and monitoring the change of microsphere size, compressive strength, production, glass transition temperature and monomer conversion as a function of time for latter. Deviation of growth rules of self-generated proppant over time revealed by the above methods are basically consistent (0–2 min). The proposed self-generated proppants show quickly grow speed, the final peak pressure of the self-generated proppants with a size range of 20–40 mesh is significantly higher than that of traditional proppants, being 1.8 to 3.6 times greater.