Properties and self-healing behavior of oil absorbent microspheres modified cement

This paper concerns the properties and self-healing behavior of cement composites modified by oil absorbent microspheres with fumed silica shell. These microspheres, prepared by Pickering polymerization, possessed excellent properties, such as uniform particle size, good hydrophilicity and fine thermal stability. Furthermore, the effect of these microspheres on the properties of cement slurry was studied. The results showed that these microspheres had good compatibility with cement slurry, except for a slight effect on the consistency of cement slurry and the compressive strength of cement stone. At last, we derived the mathematical formulation of valid sealing for microcracks in self-healing cement, and measured sealing pressure under different filling conditions. The self-healing cement would guarantee the health, safety and high efficiency in the process of oil and gas production. (paper)