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Nano Research 2023, 16(5): 6048-6056 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4527-8
Research Article | Issue | Published: 06 July 2022

Facile and controllable synthesis of amino-modified carbon dots for efficient oil displacement

Show Author's Information Yining Wu1,  Lisha Tang1,  Mengjiao Cao1,  Li Li2,  Kai Liu3,  Demin Kong3,  Qingshan Zhao3,  Xu Jin4,  He Liu4,  Caili Dai1( )
Shandong Key Laboratory of Oilfeld Chemistry, School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Oil & Gas Technology Research Institute of Changqing Oilfield Company, Xi’an 710000, China
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
PetroChina Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Beijing 100083, China
Keywords:
carbon dots, polymerization, enhanced oil recovery, adhesion force, amino-modification
Topics:
Carbon quantum dots
Cite this article:
Wu Y, Tang L, Cao M, et al. Facile and controllable synthesis of amino-modified carbon dots for efficient oil displacement. Nano Research, 2023, 16(5): 6048-6056. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4527-8
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Zero-dimensional (0D) carbon dots exhibit excellent potential as a new oil-displacing agent for unconventional reservoir development. However, the difficulty in size/surface properties control and unclear mechanism hinder their further applications. In this study, amino-modified carbon dots (am-CDs) for oil displacement were facilely synthesized through the rapid polymerization of D-glucose (D-Glc) and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). The size of am-CDs could be precisely controlled by the reaction condition and quenching achieved by adjusting the pH value to neutral. The surface amine groups endow am-CDs with excellent hydrophilicity and dispersion stability. The 0.30 wt.% nanofluid based on am-CDs with an average size of 2.6 ± 0.040 nm showed remarkable oil recovery efficiency (54.09%) without the addition of surfactant. The oil recovery efficiency of am-CDs is much higher than those of water flooding (30.25%), nano-SiO2 flooding (36.45%), and amino-free carbon dots (af-CDs) flooding (37.80%). Experimental and theoretical results reveal that am-CDs can be favorably adsorbed on the core surface to modulate the micro-scale wettability, changing the surface from oil-wet to relatively uniform water-wet. Meanwhile, am-CDs can effectively reduce the adhesion force between alkanes and sandstone surfaces, contributing to oil droplets peeling off and oil displacement. This study provides a new strategy for developing efficient carbon dots-based nanofluids for enhanced oil recovery.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Facile and controllable synthesis of amino-modified carbon dots for efficient oil displacement

Show Author's information Yining Wu1, Lisha Tang1, Mengjiao Cao1, Li Li2, Kai Liu3, Demin Kong3, Qingshan Zhao3, Xu Jin4, He Liu4, Caili Dai1( )
Shandong Key Laboratory of Oilfeld Chemistry, School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Oil & Gas Technology Research Institute of Changqing Oilfield Company, Xi’an 710000, China
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
PetroChina Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Beijing 100083, China

Abstract

Zero-dimensional (0D) carbon dots exhibit excellent potential as a new oil-displacing agent for unconventional reservoir development. However, the difficulty in size/surface properties control and unclear mechanism hinder their further applications. In this study, amino-modified carbon dots (am-CDs) for oil displacement were facilely synthesized through the rapid polymerization of D-glucose (D-Glc) and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). The size of am-CDs could be precisely controlled by the reaction condition and quenching achieved by adjusting the pH value to neutral. The surface amine groups endow am-CDs with excellent hydrophilicity and dispersion stability. The 0.30 wt.% nanofluid based on am-CDs with an average size of 2.6 ± 0.040 nm showed remarkable oil recovery efficiency (54.09%) without the addition of surfactant. The oil recovery efficiency of am-CDs is much higher than those of water flooding (30.25%), nano-SiO2 flooding (36.45%), and amino-free carbon dots (af-CDs) flooding (37.80%). Experimental and theoretical results reveal that am-CDs can be favorably adsorbed on the core surface to modulate the micro-scale wettability, changing the surface from oil-wet to relatively uniform water-wet. Meanwhile, am-CDs can effectively reduce the adhesion force between alkanes and sandstone surfaces, contributing to oil droplets peeling off and oil displacement. This study provides a new strategy for developing efficient carbon dots-based nanofluids for enhanced oil recovery.

Keywords: carbon dots, polymerization, enhanced oil recovery, adhesion force, amino-modification

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 21 March 2022
Revised: 24 April 2022
Accepted: 11 May 2022
Published: 06 July 2022
Issue date: May 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2019YFA0708700) and the China National Petroleum Corporation Innovation Found (No. 2021DQ02-0205).

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