The aggregation structure and rheological properties of catanionic surfactant mixtures and potential applications in fracturing fluids

Abstract

Clean fracturing fluids are widely used in reservoir stimulation and increasing production due to their characteristics of simple preparation, no residue, easy flowback, and low damage. At present, clean fracturing fluids are mainly prepared by cationic surfactants as main agent and inorganic or organic salts as additives, which can lead to unavoidable losses of cationic surfactants due to their adsorption in the formation. Anionic-cationic surfactants composite system can not only compensate for the shortcomings of a single surfactant system, but also improve the reservoir adaptability of the surfactant system. In this paper, a clean fracturing fluid was prepared with long-chain anionic surfactant, Sodium erucate (NaOEr), as main agent and a series of cationic surfactants with different as additive. Then, the aggregation behavior of mixed system was determined by visual appearance, rheology experiments, differential scanning calorimetry and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. The phase transition mechanism induced by temperature was proposed, and the performance of the mixed system as a fracturing fluid was evaluated. The results showed the mixed systems could self-assemble into wormlike micelles when the length of hydrophobic carbon chains of cationic surfactant was 6 and 8. Increasing the length of the hydrophobic carbon chain could enhance the electrostatic effect, leading to precipitation in the mixed system. When the ratio of cationic surfactant was between 0.5 and 0.6 and the concentration was between 68 and 175 mmol∙L-1, the mixed systems tended to form three-dimensional structures by entangling and stacking wormlike micelles, showing high viscoelasticity and viscosity. The aggregation structure of the mixed system transformed from vesicles to wormlike micelles at 46.8 °C, which is attributed to the transition of carbon chains of NaOEr from non-flexible to flexible. Finally, the mixed system as a fracturing fluid has good shear resistance and temperature resistance. The viscosity of NaOEr/HTAB can reach above 50 mPa⋅s after sheared for 60 min at the conditions of 170 s−1 and 80 °C. This study provides an anionic clean fracturing fluid and broaden the application of viscoelastic surfactants in oilfield development.