Preparation and properties of epoxy foam materials for deep in-situ condition-preserved coring device

To maintain the in-situ temperature of rock cores, a specialized coring device equipped with temperature-preserved module is essential. The thermal insulation material with low thermal conductivity and high compressive strength is a critical component. In this study, an innovative foaming agent was utilized to fabricate an epoxy resin-based insulation material. Nanosilica particles were synthesized via the sol-gel method, followed by the preparation of porous SiO2 microspheres using the polymer-induced colloid aggregation method. The porous SiO2 microspheres were combined with the chemical blowing agent to create a composite blowing agent. Using high strength epoxy resin as the matrix, the study examined the effects of the foaming process and blowing agent content on the properties of the resulting epoxy foam materials.