Influence of Individual Ions on Silica Nanoparticles Interaction with Berea Sandstone Minerals

Aly A Hamouda; Rockey Abhishek

doi:10.3390/nano9091267

Influence of Individual Ions on Silica Nanoparticles Interaction with Berea Sandstone Minerals

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2019 Sep 5;9(9):1267. doi: 10.3390/nano9091267.

Authors

Aly A Hamouda¹, Rockey Abhishek²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, University of Stavanger, 4036 Stavanger, Norway. aly.hamouda@uis.no.
² Institute of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, University of Stavanger, 4036 Stavanger, Norway. rockey.abhishek@uis.no.

Abstract

Nanofluids are prepared by dispersing silica nanoparticles in aqueous media (brines). The purpose of this work is to address brine/rock interactions in presence of nanoparticles. Our previous studies have shown that silica nanofluids are effective in reducing formation damage in sandstone reservoirs. This study addresses effect of individual ions on dispersed silica nanoparticles' interaction with Berea Sandstone minerals. The selected ions are Mg²⁺, SO₄^2- and Na⁺, in MgCl₂, Na₂SO₄ and NaCl, which are the major constituents of seawater. Three flooding stages for Berea Sandstone cores were followed. The first flooding stage was without nanoparticles, the second one was a slug of the nanoparticles with tracer and the third stage was a post-flushing of the core with the respective ion. The effluent tracer concentration, nanoparticle content, ion concentrations and pH reflect the effect of individual ions on nanoparticle/mineral interaction which were used for suggesting possible interaction mechanisms. Presence of Mg²⁺ and SO₄^2- ions improved the adsorption of nanoparticles on minerals, however the effect of Na⁺ was lesser. In general, in all the cases nanoparticles reduced the mineral dissolution and associated fine migration/possible formation damage.

Keywords: Mg2+; Na+; SO42−; adsorption; fluid/rock interaction; nanoparticles; silica.