Aluminium Oxide Nanoparticles Functionalized with Green High/Low Surface Energy Materials for Oil Recovery Applications.

The study of improving hydrocarbon recovery has attracted a great deal of resources in many disciplines. Introducing nanoparticles as an additive to the fluid have shown promise results in changing the reservoir properties through different mechanisms that include wettability and interfacial tension reduction. The research topic is Green Low Surface Energy Materials: using aluminium oxide nanoparticles modified by different carboxylic acids (shown in Figure 1) to obtain various hydrophobicity degree. The purpose of this study is to find out whether the structure behaviour and size of nanoparticle aggregates changes in presence of chemical agents (surfactants) at ambient and reservoir conditions and to obtain the best NPs/surfactant formulation for EOR applications.