Hydraulic fracturing proppants Hydraulic fracturing proppants A proppant is a solid material, typically sand, treated sand or man-made ceramic materials, designed to keep an induced hydraulic fracture open, during or following a fracturing treatment. It is added to a "fracking fluid" which may vary in composition depending on the type of fracturing used, and can be gel, foam or slickwater–based. In addition, there may be unconventional fracking fluids. Fluids make tradeoffs in such material properties as viscosity, where more viscous fluids can carry more concentrated proppant; the energy or pressure demands to maintain a certain flux pump rate (flow velocity) that will conduct
Sol–gel process requires an excess of water and/or the use of a hydrolysis catalyst such as acetic acid or hydrochloric acid. Intermediate species including [(OR)−Si−(OH)] or [(OR)−Si−(OH)] may result as products of partial hydrolysis reactions. Early intermediates result from two partially hydrolyzed monomers linked with a siloxane [Si−O−Si] bond: or Thus, polymerization is associated with the formation of a 1-, 2-, or 3-dimensional network of siloxane [Si−O−Si] bonds accompanied by the production of H−O−H and R−O−H species. By definition, condensation liberates a small molecule, such as water or alcohol. This type of reaction can continue to build larger and larger silicon-containing molecules