{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,12]],"date-time":"2026-10-12T17:15:32Z","timestamp":1791825332276,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,5]],"date-time":"2025-08-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1754352000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Hubei Province Science and Technology Plan Project (Key R&amp;D Special Project), China","award":["2023BCB070"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023BCB070"]}]},{"name":"Hubei Province Science and Technology Plan Project (Key R&amp;D Special Project), China","award":["2022B01042"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022B01042"]}]},{"name":"Key R&amp;D Program Project in Xinjiang, China","award":["2023BCB070"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023BCB070"]}]},{"name":"Key R&amp;D Program Project in Xinjiang, China","award":["2022B01042"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022B01042"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Gels"],"abstract":"<jats:p>During the process of oil and gas drilling, due to the existence of pores or micro-cracks, drilling fluid is prone to invade the formation. Under the action of hydration expansion of clay in the formation and liquid pressure, wellbore instability occurs. In order to reduce the wellbore instability caused by drilling fluid intrusion into the formation, this study proposed a method of forming a dynamic hydrogen bond cross-linked network weak gel structure with modified nano-silica and P(AM-AAC). The plugging performance of the drilling fluid and the performance of inhibiting the hydration of shale were evaluated through various experimental methods. The results show that the gel composite system (GCS) effectively optimizes the plugging performance of drilling fluid. The 1% GCS can reduce the linear expansion rate of cuttings to 14.8% and increase the recovery rate of cuttings to 96.7%, and its hydration inhibition effect is better than that of KCl and polyamines. The dynamic cross-linked network structure can significantly increase the viscosity of drilling fluid. Meanwhile, by taking advantage of the liquid-phase viscosity effect and the physical blocking effect, the loss of drilling fluid can be significantly reduced. Mechanism studies conducted using zeta potential measurement, SEM analysis, contact angle measurement and capillary force assessment have shown that modified nano-silica stabilizes the wellbore by physically blocking the nano-pores of shale and changing the wettability of the shale surface from hydrophilic to hydrophobic when the contact angle exceeds 60\u00b0, thereby reducing capillary force and surface free energy. Meanwhile, the dynamic cross-linked network can reduce the seepage of free water into the formation, thereby significantly lowering the fluid loss of the drilling fluid. This research provides new insights into improving the stability of the wellbore in drilling fluids.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/gels11080614","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,5]],"date-time":"2025-08-05T10:50:21Z","timestamp":1754391021000},"page":"614","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Preparation of a Nanomaterial\u2013Polymer Dynamic Cross-Linked Gel Composite and Its Application in Drilling Fluids"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Fei","family":"Gao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Oil & Gas Drilling and Completion Technology, School of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"},{"name":"Hubei Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Drilling and Production Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Catalysis and Carbon Dioxide Utilization, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7747-2423","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Peng","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Oil & Gas Drilling and Completion Technology, School of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"},{"name":"Hubei Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Drilling and Production Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Catalysis and Carbon Dioxide Utilization, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hui","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Sinopec North China Company, Zhengzhou 450006, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hao","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"No. 9 Oil Production Plant of PetroChina Changqing Oilfield Company, Yinchuan 750001, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xin","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"No. 11 Oil Production Plant of PetroChina Changqing Oilfield Company, Yinchuan 750001, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xinru","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Oil & Gas Drilling and Completion Technology, School of Petroleum Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"},{"name":"Hubei Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Drilling and Production Engineering, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Catalysis and Carbon Dioxide Utilization, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiayi","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shale Oil Development Branch of PetroChina Changqing Oilfield Company, Qingyang 745100, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"328","DOI":"10.1007\/s12517-024-12138-5","article-title":"The combined effect of drilling fluid, in-situ stresses and inclination on wellbore stability","volume":"17","author":"Karakul","year":"2024","journal-title":"Arab. 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