Assembly of porous hierarchical copolymers/resin proppants: New approaches to smart proppant immobilization via molecular anchors

•Hierarchical structures demonstrating two new immobile proppant concepts.•Bi-functionalized molecular anchors for resin attachment to the proppant surface.•The resin-coated proppants cures to create porous hierarchical structures.•A pH-responsive reversible bridging layer between the proppant particles.

HypothesisThe assembly of temperature/pH sensitive complex microparticle structures through chemisorption and physisorption provides a responsive system that offers application as routes to immobilization of proppants in-situ.ExperimentsThermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) along with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) have been used to characterize a series of bi-functionalized monolayers and/or multilayers grown on alumina microparticles and investigate the reactive nature of both temperature sensitive cross-linker (epoxy resin) with the layers and pH-responsive bridging layer (polyetheramine).FindingsThe bifunctional acids, behaving as molecular anchors, allow for a controlled reaction with a cross-linker (resin or polymer) with the formation of networks, which is either irreversible or reversible based on the nature of the cross-linker. The networks results in formation of porous hierarchical particles that offer a potential route to the creation of immobile proppant pack.

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