Nanoparticles in drilling fluid: A review of the state-of-the-art

Nanoparticles (NPs) as a nanotechnologies unit have a huge potential for improving drilling fluids. However, the role of NPs in this field is still in its infancy and consequently has attracted much more attention in the last years. This review is going to investigate the drilling fluids modified by nanoparticles. Moreover, effects of various nanoparticles include polymeric, ceramic, metal and carbon-based NPs on drilling fluid and technical and economic benefits of them will be inspected. Although various reviews of nano-based drilling fluids have been reported, few papers have provided a comprehensive review and development of nanoparticles application in this issue. This review summarizes the recent research advances in the synthesis and applications of NPs in drilling fluids system. The roles of NPs in rheology and fluid loss control, mud cake thickness, filtration properties, and thermal properties are discussed. Accordingly, various literature reviews demonstrated that use of nano materials in drilling fluid has two main goals: improvement of thermal and physical-mechanical of drilling fluids. The studies in this issue will facilitate the design of advanced functional nano-composites for drilling fluids.