Investigation of the interaction between nanoparticles, asphaltenes, and silica surfaces by real‐time quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation

Abstract

AbstractThe effects of nanofluids as wettability alternators and inhibitors of asphaltene precipitation and formation damage were studied in this work. Silicate‐based nanoparticles with different chemical surfaces, named neutral (NN), basic (BN), and acidic (AN), dispersed in NaCl brine were tested to observe their interactions with n‐C7 asphaltenes and silica surfaces using the quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM‐D). The properties of nanoparticles were characterized using XRD, BET, TPD, and HRTEM. Heptol 70 asphaltenes, pre‐adsorbed/deposited on SiO2 sensors were used for studying the concentration effect of 10 nm‐sized BN‐based nanofluids, which exhibited a decreasing trend in frequency shift in the following order 1 > 10 > 25 mg/L. For toluene asphaltenes, the frequency shifts in BN nanofluids changed with the following order of concentration 100 > 150 > 50 > 25 mg/L. The effect of particle size on frequency shift, tested for toluene asphaltenes demonstrated the following order 10 > 99 > 45 > 20 nm BN. A cycle injection test between asphaltenes and a nanofluid solution was performed to evaluate the effect of the nanoparticles in a sequence injection. Wettability alteration was assessed before and after nanofluid injection using contact angle measurements, which resulted in a decrease after nanofluid injection. In addition, atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements were performed on some of the samples to support the findings. The QSense data analysis software Q‐Tools was used to determine the thickness of the layer before and after the injection of nanofluids; the trend was similar to the change in frequency for all parameters. Finally, brine‐based nanofluids with 10 nm‐sized BN at 1 and 100 mg/L were more effective in treating the deposited asphaltenes in heptol 70 and toluene, respectively.