Light Weight Proppant With Improved Strength And Methods Of Making Same

Abstract

Methods are described to make strong, tough, and lightweight whisker-reinforced glass-ceramic composites through a self-toughening structure generated by viscous reaction sintering of a complex mixture of oxides. The invention further relates to strong, tough, and lightweight glass-ceramic composites that can be used as proppants and for other uses.

Description

[0001]This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of prior U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 384,875, filed Sep. 21, 2010, which is incorporated in its entirety by reference herein.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to methods to make strong, tough, and lightweight whisker-reinforced glass-ceramic composites. The method can involve forming a self-toughening structure generated by viscous reaction sintering of a complex mixture of oxides. The whisker-reinforced glass-ceramic preferably is strong, tough, and / or lightweight. The present invention further relates to strong, tough, and lightweight glass-ceramic composites used as proppants and for other uses including, but not limited to, armor plating, electronic, optical, high-temperature structural materials and applications, as a low dielectric constant substrate material in high-performance packaging applications; or window materials for the mid-infrared range.[0003]The use of cer...

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Benefits of technology

[0040]The present invention further provides a new and improved propping agent, and a method of making and use thereof, that overcomes the above-referenced problems and others. The present invention also relates to a ceramic proppant having a unique microstructure that includes whiskers arranged in a random alignment, and optionally having reduced density, and/or improved strength. The whiskers can be employed to reinforce the ceramic proppant and/or dissipate energy during crack propagation. The microstructure can also include anisotropic crystals, for example, crystals elongated along the C-axis. The proppant can have a reduced density such that the proppant has a low specific gravity while optionally maintaining improved mechanical and/or flexural strength. As an option, the present invention provides a proppant having substantially spherical shape and a smooth exterior surface. The present invention can include a relatively small number of substantially uniformly distributed pores having substantially spherical shape in the sintered body where such pores can contribute to reducing the density of the proppant. The small size, uniform distribution

Problems solved by technology

The fibers can also impede crack initiation and propagation through the matrix material.

Whiskers can provide strengthening in a similar manner, but load transfer to the whiskers by the matrix is more limited because of the limited length and aspect ratio of the whiskers.

Because whiskers are relatively short, they cannot carry as much load compared to the longer fibers.

It is more difficult to take full advantage of the intrinsic strength of whiskers compared to fibers for this reason.

Processes involving dispersion of preformed whiskers in a green body material have been difficult to successfully implement because whiskers have a tendency to agglomerate resulting in non-uniform concentrations of whiskers throughout the green body and ultimately in the ceramic composi

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