title: Nanofluid of graphene-based amphiphilic Janus nanosheets for tertiary or enhanced oil recovery: High performance at low concentration.
abstract: The current simple nanofluid flooding method for tertiary or enhanced oil recovery is inefficient, especially when used with low nanoparticle concentration. We have designed and produced a nanofluid of graphene-based amphiphilic nanosheets that is very effective at low concentration. Our nanosheets spontaneously approached the oil-water interface and reduced the interfacial tension in a saline environment (4 wt % NaCl and 1 wt % CaCl2), regardless of the solid surface wettability. A climbing film appeared and grew at moderate hydrodynamic condition to encapsulate the oil phase. With strong hydrodynamic power input, a solid-like interfacial film formed and was able to return to its original form even after being seriously disturbed. The film rapidly separated oil and water phases for slug-like oil displacement. The unique behavior of our nanosheet nanofluid tripled the best performance of conventional nanofluid flooding methods under similar conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204; State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610500, China;
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204;
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610500, China;
authors.forename: Jingyi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204;
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204;
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610500, China;
authors.forename: Xiaogang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204; Departamento de Biotecnología e Ingeniería de Alimentos, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon 64849, Mexico;
authors.forename: Richard C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Willson
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610500, China; Yangzhaozhong@swpu.edu.cn cwchu@uh.edu zren@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Zhaozhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 Yangzhaozhong@swpu.edu.cn cwchu@uh.edu zren@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Ching-Wu
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204; Yangzhaozhong@swpu.edu.cn cwchu@uh.edu zren@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Zhifeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ren
keywords: amphiphilic Janus nanosheets; climbing film; enhanced oil recovery; interfacial film; nanofluid flooding