(585h) Janus Carbon Nanofluids from Waste Plastic As Sustainable Nanoagents for Potential EOR Application

Nanofluid flooding is an emerging enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique whereby injection fluids containing nanoparticles or nanocomposites are utilized for the oil displacement or injectivity improvement in oil reservoirs. Plastics, as one of the most widely used materials in modern world, are highly durable but difficult to degrade, and thus the development of efficient strategies for decarbonization through the recycling of waste plastic materials and has become a major goal across the various industries. This research reports a new cost-effective method to synthesize a new type of useful nanomaterials from waste plastics, surfactant-like Janus carbon nanofluids, and is to demonstrate the Janus carbon nanofluids as highly-effective alternative nano-agents for EOR application at reservoir condition.

A new scale-up synthesis method of Janus carbon nanoparticles (JC-NPs) has been developed from the waste plastic feedstock by combined pyrolysis, chemical functionalization and pulverization processes, which allows to produce the JC-NPs in mass quantity at low-cost for industrial applications. The Janus nanostructures have been characterized and confirmed by multiple techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) isotherm, contact angle, fluorescence imaging and interfacial tension (IFT) measurements. With microfluidic EOR imaging technique, we have observed unique dual properties of nanoparticulate and surfactant-like behavior of the JC-NPs. Formulated as nanofluids in brine suspension, the JC-NPs can be directed and assembled at interfaces of rock/fluid or water/oil, enabling their potential application as nanoagents for EOR application.

The developed waste plastic conversion technology appears as an attractive way to produce useful, valuable Janus carbon nanomaterials to decrease the carbon footprint and contribute to the transition toward a resource-efficient chemical industry.