The construction of pseudo-Janus silica/surfactant assembly and their application to stabilize Pickering emulsions and enhance oil recovery

Abstract

Nanoparticles with high surface energy and chemical activity have drawn substantial attention in petroleum industry. Recently, Janus nanoparticles exhibited tremendous potential in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) due to their asymmetric structures and properties. In this study, a series of amphiphilic pseudo-Janus@OTAB (PJ@C18) nanoparticles with different concentrations of stearyltrimethylammoium bromide (OTAB) were successfully fabricated. The structures and properties of PJ@C18 were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and ζ-potential measurements. Based on the emulsification experimental results, the interaction models and the self-assembly behavior between hydrophilic nanoparticles (SiO₂@NH₂) and OTAB molecules at the oil/water interface were proposed, which was further confirmed via the measurements of the contact angle and dynamic interfacial tension. Interestingly, it was found that the change of pH value from 7.5 to 4.0 caused the type reversal of the PJ@C18-1000 stabilized Pickering emulsions. Furthermore, the PJ@C18-1000 stabilized Pickering emulsion system with excellent salt and temperature tolerances (10000 mg∙L^–1, 90 °C) significantly improved the oil recovery in the single-tube (more than 17%) and double-tube (more than 25%) sand pack model flooding tests. The findings of this study could help to better understand the construction mechanism of pseudo-Janus silica/surfactant assembly and the potential application of PJ@C18-1000 stabilized Pickering emulsions for EOR.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Janus nanoparticles / surfactant / double phase inversion / self-assembly / enhanced oil recovery

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51974344), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Provincial (Grant No. ZR2019MEE077), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 19CX02064A).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11705-021-2095-1 and is accessible for authorized users.

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