What's the main function of Tetramethyl ammonium chloride in oilfield exploitation?
Tetramethyl ammonium chloride, TMAC, easily soluble in water and alcohols, belongs to Quaternary ammonium compounds. It has a lot of applications in many fields, the following mainly introduces one of the most important functions of Tetramethyl ammonium chloride in oilfield exploitation.
Tetramethylammonium chloride is widely used as a shale inhibitor in oilfield exploitation. The clay content in shale is high. When water-based drilling fluid comes into contact with shale, it can cause clay to expand and disperse, leading to wellbore collapse. Shale swelling and dispersion when encountering water are caused by the dissociation and hydration of exchangeable cations on the surface of shale in water, forming a diffusion double layer with negative charge and generating electrostatic repulsion. Therefore, drilling fluid should have two major functions-preventing or delaying water migration from the wellbore to the wellbore, and increasing the connectivity between mineral particles on the wellbore. Cationic surfactants can produce surface active cations after dissociation in water, which can adsorb on the clay surface, neutralize the negative charge on the clay surface, and inhibit shale expansion and dispersion, thereby stabilizing the wellbore.
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