Effect of Sodium Hexametaphosphate on the Yield Value and Viscosity of a Hydrogen Bentonite Suspension

Abstract

PHOSPHATES, especially the sodium hexametaphosphate, are now widely applied for the treatment of drilling muds used in the rotary drilling of oil-wells¹. Some papers dealing from the colloid chemical point of view with the action of phosphates on clay suspensions have recently been published². A majority of investigators appears to have expressed the results of their measurements in terms of apparent viscosity and to have paid insufficient attention to the progress of the reaction. We have tried in our work to overcome these objections, and have obtained some results which seem to need further explanation. Results of detailed investigations will be published elsewhere ; but the preliminary observations appear to be sufficiently interesting to be communicated here.