Zeta Potential Investigation and Mathematical Modeling of Nanoparticles Deposited on the Rock Surface to Reduce Fine Migration

Abstract

Abstract Fine migration is a noticeable problem in petroleum production engineering. Plugging of throats in porous media occurs due to detachment of fine particles from sand surfaces. Hence the study of interactions between fines and pore surfaces and investigating the governing forces are important issues to describe the mechanism of fines release process. The main types of these forces are electric double layer repulsion and London-van der Waals attraction. It is possible to change these forces by the use of nanoparticles as surface coatings. Nanoparticles increase the effect of attraction forces in comparison with repulsion forces. In this paper, we present new experiments and modeling to observe these properties of nanoparticles. For this purpose, the surface of pores was coated with different types of nanoparticles (MgO, Sio2, and Al2O3). Zeta potential test was used to examine changes in potential of the pore surfaces. Total interaction energy is then mathematically calculated to compare different states. Total interaction energy is a felicitous criterion which gives proper information about the effect of different nanoparticles on surface properties. Accordingly, the total interaction plots are found to be the suitable tool to select the best coating material. 10-μm-diameter silica spheres and glass beads packed cwere utilized as fines and porous medium, respectively. Measurements were performed in 1:1 electrolyte aqueous solution of 10−3 mM, and probe-plate separation distances varied from less than 1 nm to 50 nm. Magnitude of change in zeta potential for MgO nanoparticle is 45 mV. Our model demonstrated that the magnitude of the electric double layer repulsion in comparison with the London-van der Waals attraction between probe and plate surface was considerably diminished when MgO nanoparticle was used to coat the surface of plate which is in complete agreement with our experimental observation.