Screening Friction Reducer Performance Using Zeta Potential

Friction reducers (FRs) are essential additives for water used in hydraulic fracturing treatments for shale reservoirs. These polymers swell and unfurl in the frac water so that polymer chains align along the direction of flow to inhibit turbulence thereby reducing friction at high flow rates. Source water ion content, application pH, and compatibility with the formation are key drivers in deciding which FR chemistries are fit-for-purpose for the operation, balancing desired fluid performance with treatment economics. This investigation explores zeta potential measurement as a novel and meaningful analytical metric to correlate chemical and rheological properties of FRs in a range of source water qualities with their friction reducing performance. The approach of this investigation involves measuring zeta potential of frac fluids formulated using anionic or cationic FRs in waters with varying ionic activity over a range of FR concentrations and pH. The evaluation encompasses a variety of FRs spanning general purpose materials to more sophisticated additives designed to function in fluids with higher concentrations of salt. Dry FR materials as well as corresponding slurry or emulsion forms of the additives are tested. Monovalent and divalent salts and mixtures thereof are used in brine formulations. FR characterization is performed including rheological sweeps, viscoelasticity measurements, and flow loop tests. Results from this study support the conclusion that zeta potential measurement can be used during the FR screening process as a viable supplement to industry standard tests for assessing FR performance in brine.

Stability studies of hybrid TiO2 based nanofluids

This article studies the stability of hybrid TiO2 based nanofluid by varying the ultra-sonication time, weight fraction between carbon and TiO2 and type of surfactant. The objective of this research are synthesise volume fraction of 0.1% C - TiO2 hybrid nanofluid with 15ml of distilled water and study the effect of weight fraction between C and TiO2, type of surfactant and ultra-sonication time to the stability of hybrid nanofluid. Weight fraction between C – TiO2 will be varied at 0% - 100%, 10% - 90%, 50% - 50%, 90% - 10% and 100% - 0%. Different ultrasonication time will be used which are 1, 3 and 5 hours to determine the optimum ultrasonication time for the hybrid nanofluid. Sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and Triton X-100 will be added into hybrid nanofluid to determine the effect of surfactant to the stability of hybrid nanofluid. The morphology and particle size characteristic of TiO2 and carbon powder is evaluated by using X-ray diffraction and FESEM. It is shown that TiO2 has particle size of around 30nm while carbon powder used is flat shaped. In this research, two steps method is used to synthesise the hybrid nanofluid. After mixing the two powder together, it will be mixed with distilled water by magnetic stirring for 3 hours. Then ultrasonication is included in synthesise of hybrid nanofluid to prevent agglomeration of particles. The pH values of each hybrid nanofluid is measured by using pH meter. Two stability evaluations are carried out which are centrifugation and zeta potential measurement. Centrifugation is carried out right after hybrid nanofluid is done ultra-sonicated for 30 minutes at 2000 RPM. Hybrid nanofluid that is ultra-sonicated for 3 hours resulted to achieve highest stability with highest value of zeta potential of -21.8 mV. 100% C - 0% TiO2 hybrid nanofluid has the highest zeta potential measurement of -37.6 mV. Finally, for type of surfactant, SDS able to enhance stability of hybrid nanofluid more than Triton X-100. The zeta potential of hybrid nanofluid after addition of SDS reached -47.0 mV which is higher than Triton X-100 which only achieve zeta potential measurement of -24.3 mV.

Adsorption Structure and Mechanism of Styryl Phosphoric Acid at the Rutile–Water Interface

The microstructure and mechanism of styryl phosphoric acid (SPA) adsorbed at the rutile–water interface were investigated through zeta potential measurement, ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry (UV-Vis), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results of the zeta potential measurement illustrate that SPA is mainly electrostatically adsorbed on the rutile surface, and the adsorption process and result can be well fitted by the Stern-Grahame equation. The adsorption is severely affected by pH due to different species of SPA occurring in different pH solutions. The compound of P–O–Ti, with a structure of bidentate binuclear or bidentate mononuclear complexes, is formed after SPA is adsorbed on the rutile surface. SPA can be adsorbed on the rutile surface through the coordination of self-polymerization and bidentate mononuclear, which greatly increases the hydrophobicity of the rutile surface. Based on the above analysis and discussion, we proposed the adsorption model of SPA at the rutile–water interface, which was conducive to the modification and synthesis of a highly efficient flotation collector of the primary rutile ore.