Newly engineered hydrophobic and hydrophilic aluminium oxide nanoparticles for enhanced oil recovery applications

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is common practice worldwide. Although there are emphasises on developing renewable energy, oil is still primary source of energy and therefore the goal of thisresearch is to find safer, more environmentally friendly and cost-effective chemicals for EOR. The aim of this work is to investigate the effect of hydrophilic and hydrophobic aluminium oxidenanoparticles and their interactions with oil (D-hexadecane) on a silicon substrate. Additionally, two surfactants will be added to the nanoparticles (NPs) dispersion and these have a twofoldpurposes: i) surfactants facilitate oil mobilisation by lowering of capillary forces due to a reduction of interfacial tension between oil and the aqueous phase and ii) the hydrophobic NPs needcolloidal stabilisation in the aqueous medium.