Polymethyl methacrylate/silica fume composite particles with different silica fume contents were prepared via in situ suspension polymerization. Morphological, mechanical, acid resisting, and thermal performances of the synthesized material were investigated. The results revealed that the polymethyl methacrylate/silica fume composite particles presented 0.6–0.9 mm sphericity in diameter. When the contents of silica fume were about between 20 and 50 wt%, the measurements of apparent density (1.072–1.156 g/cm3) were obviously lower than its theoretical values (1.163–1.278 g/cm3) due to abundant micron-sized macropores (>50 nm) existing inside the composite particles. Furthermore, the crushing rate and acid solubility of composite particles were all less than 5%, which reached the requirements of the standard of SY/T 5108-2006. With increasing the silica fume content from 0 to 60 wt%, the Tg of the composite particles increased from 105.21 to 223.50℃, and the mass loss decreased from 24.46 to 4.25% as the temperature increased to 400℃. The reinforced performances including of spherical millimetric size, light weight, high strength, good acid resistance, and excellent thermal stability confirmed that the polymethyl methacrylate/silica fume composite particles have a great potential application as proppants in petroleum and gas exploration.
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