Experimental investigation of the effect of green TiO2/Quartz nanocomposite on interfacial tension reduction, wettability alteration, and oil recovery improvement

Nanoparticles (NPs) have shown showed a promising role in improving oil recovery as potential enhanced oil recovery (EOR) agents. In this study, one-pot green technique was used to synthesize titanium oxide NPs from the euphoria condylocarpa extract, and graft it on the surface of quartz to develop a green nanocomposite (NC) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications. The synthesized TiO2/Quartz NC was identified using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In order to prepare the novel nanofluids, the synthesized NC was dispersed in desilted water, seawater and low-salinity water (seawater dilution), which were characterized through analyzing their stability, viscosity, pH, density and conductivity behaviors. The prepared nanofluids were used to minimize the interfacial tension (IFT) and contact angle between crude oil and water on the surface of carbonate rocks. The obtained results show that TiO2/Quartz-nanofluid (DWN1000), with 1000 ppm dispersed in distilled water, enables an additional oil recovery of 21% OOIP due to a significant reduction in IFT from 36.4 to 3.5 mN/m, improving the rheology behavior and wettability alteration towards a stronger water-wet system from 103° to 48° contact angle. Thus, the synthesized NC provides high stability solution with a promising potential in EOR applications.