Study on oil-in-water emulsions stabilized by SiO2 nanoparticles for Enhancing Oil Recovery in harsh reservoirs

Study on oil-in-water emulsions stabilized by SiO2 nanoparticles for Enhancing Oil Recovery in harsh reservoirs | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Study on oil-in-water emulsions stabilized by SiO2 nanoparticles for Enhancing Oil Recovery in harsh reservoirs Liu Yang, Jiiang Ge, Hao Wu, Xiaqing Li, Xiangfeng Zhang, Guicai Zhang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4649347/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 10 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract In high-temperature and high-salt environments, emulsions stabilized by surfactants are susceptible to instability phenomena, such as droplet coalescence, thereby limiting their utility in tertiary oil recovery. Addition of nanoparticles to the emulsion systems is able to improve the stability of emulsions by several mechanisms. In this paper, two kinds of SiO 2 nanoparticle stabilized emulsions, i.e., the electrostatic repulsion stabilized emulsions (ERS) and the Pickering emulsions, are investigated to clear their potential for Enhancing Oil Recovery. The ERS emulsions are prepared by adding SiO 2 nanoparticle to a SDS stabilized emulsion. It is found that the critical surfactant concentration for forming emulsions is reduced from 0.06% to 0.006%, and the ERS emulsions are stable at salinity lower than 1% NaCl with no oil phase releasing. The cryo-SEM experiments show that the nanoparticles mainly disperse in the aqueous phase and prevent the droplets from coalescence by electrostatic repulsion. On the other hand, Pickering emulsions are prepared using nonionic surfactant modified SiO 2 nanoparticles. By adjusting a surfactant-to-nanoparticles ratio (such as 0.1%:1.0%), the hydrophilic-lipophilic equilibrium is obtained. Laser confocal and cryo-scanning electron microscopy results indicated that SiO 2 nanoparticles in Pickering emulsions are dispersed at the oil-water interface, forming a network structure between the emulsion droplets. Further experiments indicates that the ERS emulsions are effective at salinity lower than 1% NaCl, and the Pickering emulsions adapt to salinity lower than 4% NaCl. In the visual 2-D oil displacement experiments, the ERS emulsion and the Pickering emulsion contribute to 8% and 15% oil recovery, respectively, since the droplets of the Pickering emulsions may aggregate and plug large pores. Enhancing Oil Recovery chemical flooding emulsions nanoparticles Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 15 Aug, 2024 Reviews received at journal 15 Aug, 2024 Reviews received at journal 08 Aug, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 05 Aug, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 25 Jul, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 24 Jul, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 20 Jul, 2024 Editor assigned by journal 02 Jul, 2024 Submission checks completed at journal 02 Jul, 2024 First submitted to journal 27 Jun, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4649347","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":330389057,"identity":"6b91d07e-5cd6-44cb-9295-4e0154b21f32","order_by":0,"name":"Liu Yang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of Petroleum","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Liu","middleName":"","lastName":"Yang","suffix":""},{"id":330389058,"identity":"373657c8-4756-418e-9147-79e43c802851","order_by":1,"name":"Jiiang Ge","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China University of 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