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 formation of multiple phases of binary oxides as the result of differing hydrolysis and condensation rates, the entrapment of cations in a polymer network is an effective approach, generally termed the Pechini Process . In this process, a chelating agent is used, most often citric acid, to surround aqueous cations and sterically entrap them. Subsequently a polymer network is formed to immobilize the chelated cations in a gel or resin. This is most often achieved by poly-esterification using ethylene glycol. The resulting polymer is then combusted under oxidising conditions to remove organic content and yield a product oxide with homogeneously