In the new round of strategic mining operations， in order to better complete large amounts of drilling work， reduce drilling fluid leakage and drilling costs， the research and application of the expansion plugging materials should be carried out. Therefore， the synthesis methods of water absorption expansion， oil absorption expansion， and shape memory deformation plugging materials are reviewed in this article. The plugging technology using expansion plugging materials is adopted in order to meet the needs of drilling plugging such as improve the strength， salt resistance， and delay expansion. It can provide guidance for propagation of the expansion plugging materials.