Synthesis and Evaluation of Highly Inhibitory Oil Well Cement Retarders with Branched-Chain Structures

Cementing at medium temperature and high temperature (90-150 °C) is facing challenges on account of the properties of the retarders. Except for the thermal stability, abnormal gelation, such as "bulging" and "stepping", often takes place and results in safety problems. In this article, the synthesis of a new retarder DRH-150 was introduced. First, a main chain with thermal-resistant groups, 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid-acrylic acid (AMPS-IA-AA) was prepared by free radical polymerization. Second, the retarder with a branched structure was synthesized by the grafting reaction. Evaluation of the construction performance showed that, within the temperature range from 90 to 150 °C, the initial viscosity of the cement slurry with DRH-150 was less than 15 Bc, exhibiting an adjustable thickening time and a dosage sensitivity of less than 20%. Meanwhile, no abnormal gelation phenomenon was observed. Referring to the static gelation, both the transition time and the starting strength time (1 MPa) were short. The overall results proved that the retarder DRH-150 might ensure the safety of well cementing and improve the wellbore sealing effect in deep wells, ultradeep wells, and complex wells.