Two-phase displacement dynamics in capillaries-nanofluid reduces the frictional coefficient

Pingkeng Wu; Alex D Nikolov; Darsh T Wasan

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2018.07.078

Two-phase displacement dynamics in capillaries-nanofluid reduces the frictional coefficient

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2018 Dec 15:532:153-160. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.07.078. Epub 2018 Jul 20.

Authors

Pingkeng Wu¹, Alex D Nikolov¹, Darsh T Wasan²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, United States.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, United States. Electronic address: wasan@iit.edu.

PMID: 30081261
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.07.078

Abstract

Surfactant solutions containing polymeric nanoparticles have been shown to have an improved wetting and spreading on solid surfaces. In this work, we explored the effect of the polymeric nanoparticles on the frictional coefficient at the three-phase contact region by studying polymeric nanofluids displacing oil in capillaries. Our results show polymeric nanoparticles can reduce the frictional coefficient by as much as four times by forming structured layers in the confined wedge film. We also demonstrate the role of the interfacial tension in affecting the frictional coefficient.

Keywords: Frictional coefficient; Nanofluid; Two-phase displacement.