Abstract
Solid organic matter (OM) plays an essential role in the generation, migration, storage, and production of hydrocarbons from economically important shale rock formations. Electron microscopy images have documented spatial heterogeneity in the porosity of OM at nanoscale, and bulk spectroscopy measurements have documented large variation in the chemical composition of OM during petroleum generation. However, information regarding the heterogeneity of OM chemical composition at the nanoscale has been lacking. Here we demonstrate the first application of atomic force microscopy-based infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR) to measure the chemical and mechanical heterogeneity of OM in shale at the nanoscale, orders of magnitude finer than achievable by traditional chemical imaging tools such as infrared microscopy. We present a combination of optical microscopy and AFM-IR imaging to characterize OM heterogeneity in an artificially matured series of New Albany Shales. The results document the evolution of individual organic macerals with maturation, providing a microscopic picture of the heterogeneous process of petroleum generation.
Highlights
Solid organic matter (OM) plays an essential role in the generation, migration, storage, and production of hydrocarbons from economically important shale rock formations
Geomechanical heterogeneity in shale has been studied by nanoindentation at the micron length scale[24,25] and by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in peak force tapping mode at nanoscale[26,27], but these techniques provide no information regarding chemical composition
Beyond the bulk picture provided by conventional analysis, this approach of following compositional and mechanical evolution of individual macerals at the relevant length scale during maturation provides a microscopic picture of the heterogeneous process of petroleum generation
Summary
Solid organic matter (OM) plays an essential role in the generation, migration, storage, and production of hydrocarbons from economically important shale rock formations. The AFM-IR images are correlated with optical microscopy images to analyze chemical and mechanical properties of macerals (optically discernible organic constituents) in a New Albany Shale sample.
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