Egyptian Journal of Petroleum xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Egyptian Journal of Petroleum

journal homepage: www.sciencedirect.com

Full Length Article

Silica nanofluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery in sandstone rocks

Magda I. Youssif a, Rehab M. El-Maghraby b,⇑, Sayed M. Saleh c, Ahmed Elgibaly d
a
Petroleum Department and Gas Technology, Faculty of Engineering, British University, Egypt
b
Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Refining Department, Faculty of Pet. and Min. Engineering, Suez University, Egypt
c
Department of Science and Mathematics, Faculty of Pet. and Min. Engineering, Suez University, Egypt
d
Petroleum Engineering Department, Faculty of Pet. and Min. Engineering, Suez University, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Enhanced oil recovery is proposed as a solution for declining oil production. One of the advanced trends
Received 26 September 2016 in the petroleum industry is the application of nanotechnology for enhanced oil recovery. Silica nanopar-
Revised 26 December 2016 ticles (SiNPs) are believed to have the ability to improve oil production, while being environmentally
Accepted 24 January 2017
friendly and of natural composition to sandstone oil reservoirs.
Available online xxxx
In our work, we investigated the effect of silica nanoparticles flooding on the amount of oil recovered.
Experiments were carried using commercial silica of approximately 20 nm in size. We used sandstone
Keywords:
cores in the core flooding experiments. For one of the cores tertiary recovery is applied where brine imbi-
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
Porous media
bition was followed by nanofluid imbibition. While in the other cores secondary recovery was applied
Dispersed silica nanoparticle where primary drainage is directly followed by nanofluid imbibition. We investigated the effect of con-
Nanoflooding centration of nanofluid on recovery; in addition, residual oil saturation was obtained to get the displace-
Nanoparticles stability ment efficiency. Silica nanofluid of concentration 0.01 wt%, 0.05 wt%, 0.1 wt% and 0.5 wt% were studied.
Nanofluid The recovery factor improved with increasing the silica nanofluid concentration until optimum concen-
tration was reached. The maximum oil recovery was achieved at optimum silica nanoparticles concentra-
tion of 0.1 wt%. The ultimate recovery of initial oil in place increased by 13.28% when using tertiary
flooding of silica nanofluid compared to the recovery achieved by water flooding alone. Based on our
experimental study, permeability impairment was investigated by studying the silica nanoparticles con-
centration, and the silica nanofluid injection rate. The permeability was measured before and after nano-
fluid injection. This helped us to understand the behavior of the silica nanoparticles in porous media.
Results showed that silica nanofluid flooding is a potential tertiary enhanced oil recovery method after
water flooding has ceased.
Ó 2017 Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction and structural properties of the nanomaterial differs totally from

Due to the declining oil production in many oil reservoirs,
advanced techniques are necessary to continue oil production
and to recover more oil in place [1]. Among those techniques are
the enhanced oil recovery techniques. The use of nanotechnology
for enhanced oil recovery is considered to be a new emerging
trend. This nanotechnology application began at the end of
1980’s and has been developed to synthesize new nanomaterials
by rearranging atoms and molecules [2]. Based on the small size
of the nanoparticles (1–100 nm), the optical, thermal, chemical,
Peer review under responsibility of Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: magda.ibrahim@bue.edu.eg (M.I. Youssif), rehab.elmaghraby@
suezuniv.edu.eg (R.M. El-Maghraby), sayed.saleh@suezuniv.edu.eg (S.M. Saleh),
Elgibalya@yahoo.com (A. Elgibaly).
those displayed by either their atoms or the bulk materials [3].
For enhanced oil recovery purpose, the smaller the nanoparticle
size, the larger the surface area, and the larger the contact surface
between the nanoparticles and the oil phase. This allows better
interaction between the nanoparticles and the oil phase for further
recovery [4]. The most commonly used nanoparticles in enhanced
oil recovery are silica nanoparticle (SiNPs). About 99.8% of silica
nanoparticle are silicone dioxide, which is the main component
of sandstone. Silica nanoparticles are an environmentally friendly
material compared to other nanomaterials. In addition, silica
nanoparticles are cheap and their chemical behavior could be
easily controlled by surface modification.
There are possible displacement mechanisms, by which silica
nanoparticle could enhance oil production, are believed to occur.
The first mechanism is the disjoining pressure mechanism. This
mechanism occurs when silica nanoparticle are present in the dis-

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2017.01.006
1110-0621/Ó 2017 Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article in press as: M.I. Youssif et al., Silica nanofluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery in sandstone rocks, Egypt. J. Petrol. (2017), http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2017.01.006
2 M.I. Youssif et al. / Egyptian Journal of Petroleum xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
persing medium, so these particles tend to rearrange themselves in
a wedge-shaped film in contact with the discontinuous oil phase
[5,6]. The wedge film acts to detach the oil phase from the rock sur-
face, hence recovering more oil as illustrated in Fig. 1. The disjoin-
ing pressure represents the pressure difference between the
pressure in the wedge film region and that in the bulk liquid [7].
This pressure is driven by Brownian motion and the electrostatic
repulsion between molecules.
The second mechanism is the Log-Jamming mechanism. Due to
the smaller size of pore throats and the constant differential pres-
sure in the pores, the velocity of the silica nanofluid will increase at
the pore throat compared to the pore body. This may cause the
water molecules to move faster than the silica nanoparticles, caus-
ing the nanoparticles to accumulate and eventually block the pore
entrance. This may force the water flow to change pass to other
non-invaded pores, possibly oil filled, resulting in more oil recov-
ery. The third mechanism is the wettability alteration mechanism.
Silica nanoparticles have the ability to change rock wettability and
to reduce the interfacial tension and the contact angle between
two immiscible fluids [1,8–10].
Oil recovery by nanofluid flooding is affected by various param-
eters such as nanofluid concentration, particle size, injection rate,
and slug size. Nanofluid concentration is considered one of the
major parameters to enhance oil recovery. The goal of this study
is to investigate the effect of silica nanofluids as an enhanced oil
recovery agent in Sandstone rocks.
2. Materials and methodology
2.1. Materials
Three Sandstone cores of different permeability ranges were
used. The properties of the cores are listed in Table 1. Black oil of
32.5 API and 4.6 cp obtained from the North Sea was used in the
flooding experiments. The synthetic brine used is of concentration
of 3.0 wt% NaCl (GPR grade, purity 99.5%, from Alpha Chemicals
Company).
Commercial hydrophilic mono dispersed silica (SiO2) nanoparti-
cles of 370 m2/g specific area were used in the experiments. The
average particle size was 22 nm. They consist of basically more
than 99.8% of silicon dioxide (SiO2) (Al2O3) 60.06%, Titanium
Fig. 1. Illustration of nanoparticle schematic and structural disjoining pressure gradient mechanism among solid, oil and nanofluids as aqueous phase.
Please cite this article in press as: M.I. Youssif et al., Silica nanofluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery in sandstone rocks, Egypt. J. Petrol. (2017), http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2017.01.006
Dioxide (TiO2) 60.03%, Hydrogen Chloride (HCl) 60.028% and other
traces elements.
Hydrophilic silica nanoparticles were suspended in 3 wt% brine;
this solution will be referred as silica nanofluid. The Nanofluid was
prepared with different concentrations, 0.01 wt%, 0.05 wt%, 0.1 wt
%, 0.2 wt% and 0.5 wt%. Each solution was mixed by using magnetic
stirrer for several minutes. To avoid precipitation of nanoparticles
from solution, ultrasonic probe (400 W and 0.5 Hz) is used for 1 h
to assurance the homogeneity and stability of prepared solutions.
The properties of the used nanofluid at different silica nanoparti-
cles concentrations are listed in Table 2.
2.2. Methodology
The equipment used for cores flooding was manufactured by
Vinci Company, in France. The experimental set-up is shown in
Fig. 2. Two flooding scenarios were studied; one with silica nano-
fluid as a secondary recovery technique, and the other where silica
nanofluid are used as a tertiary recovery technique.
In the first scenario, silica nanofluid were used as a tertiary
recovery technique. Core# 1 was first cleaned and dried then
placed in glass desiccator to be fully saturated with brine of 3 wt
% NaCl concentration. The weight of the core was recorded many
times until the weight remained constant. The core was placed in
the core holder and black oil injection took place. The injection
flow rate was increased until irreducible water saturation was
reached. At this point the core was saturated with oil. Then
imbibition process was initiated by using brine to displace oil at
injection rate of 0.5 ml/min, and then continued until no more oil
produced. Pore volume of the injected brine was 1.77 PV. At this
stage, residual oil saturation (Sor1) was determined, and recovery
factor was calculated. The next step was to continue injection
by nanofluid of different concentration at injection rate of
0.5 ml/min. At this stage, residual oil saturation (Sor2) was deter-
mined again, and recovery factor was calculated to determine
how much oil would be produced at this concentration.
The displacement efficiency was calculated from the following
equation:
 
Sor2
ED ¼ 1   100 ð1Þ
Sor1
 M.I. Youssif et al. / Egyptian Journal of Petroleum xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 3

Table 1
The properties of the sandstone cores used in our experiments.

Core No. Length Diameter Pore volume Porositya Permeabilityb Swi

(cm) (cm) (cc) % md %
Core# 1 4.2 3.8 8.9 19.4 587 10.0
Core# 2 4.1 3.8 9.9 21.7 285 23.7
Core# 3 4.3 3.8 9.5 19.8 325 16.2
a
Porosity is measured by Helium Porosimeter.
b
Permeability is measured by Klinkenberg method.

Table 2 the permeability impairment [12]. The permeability was measured

Silica nanofluid properties. before and after nanofluid injection on Core# 1, Core# 2, and Core#
Fluid Density, gm/cc Viscosity, cp 3 to make sure that permeability impairment or other reduction in
Nanofluid 0.01 wt% 1.019 1.009
reservoir properties didn’t exceed a desired value.
Nanofluid 0.05 wt% 1.019 1.067
Nanofluid 0.1 wt% 1.020 1.160
Nanofluid 0.5 wt% 1.022 1.347 3. Results & discussion

Tertiary recovery is performed on Core# 1, after imbibition by

where, ED is displacement efficiency, Sor1 is residual oil saturation
after brine floods, and Sor2 is residual oil saturation after nanofluid
floods.
In the second scenario, Core # 2 and Core# 3 were tested using
silica nanofluid as secondary recovery method. The previous flood-
ing steps mentioned in scenario 1 were repeated. The only differ-
ence was that the imbibition step using brine was not followed
immediately by silica nanofluid imbibition. Instead after the imbi-
bition of the core with brine the core was cleaned, then dried and
saturated with brine. The drainage process was initiated by oil
injection in the core till irreducible water saturation is reached,
after which the silica nanofluid imbibition stared immediately till
we reach residual oil saturation. Different silica nanofluid concen-
tration was investigated.
Injecting Silica nanoparticles through the pores of the cores may
lead to particle retention in some cases [11]. Consequently many
parameters should be taken into consideration to eliminate perme-
ability impairment to minimum level. Concentration of nanoparti-
cle suspension, well-dispersion solution, injection rate, and pore
volume injected are the most important parameter affecting on
water flooding; Core# 1 was flooded by silica nanofluid of different
concentration. Fig. 3 showed the relation between PV injected and
recovery factor at each concentration for Core# 1. The residual sat-
uration after water flooding and silica nanofluid flooding for core#
1 and core# 2 are listed in Table 3. It was observed that the injec-
tion of silica nanofluid in the core enhances oil production, espe-
cially as the silica concentration increases. The higher the silica
concentration, the higher the amount of recovered oil up to an
optimum silica nanofluid concentration after which the oil recov-
ery decrease. It is believed that permeability impairment was the
cause of the reduction in oil recovery at high concentration
because of the locking of the tiny pores of the core plug. The use
of silica nanoparticles following brine flooding increased the oil
recovery factor from 53.1% in the case of water flooding alone to
66.40% following silica nanofluid injection at 0.1 wt% silica concen-
tration as a tertiary recovery.
Secondary recovery is performed on Core# 2, where the primary
drainage stage is followed by direct silica nanofluid imbibition. Dif-
ferent silica nanoparticles concentrations were used to reach an
optimum concentration that will maximize the oil recovery factor.

Fig. 2. Experimental set up schematic: (1) Graduated tube. (2) Prep Pump. (3) Injection pipe. (4) Core holder. (5) Core plug. (6) Sleeve pressure. (7) Fluid accumulator. (8)
Carry over fluid accumulator. (9) Hydraulic pump.

Please cite this article in press as: M.I. Youssif et al., Silica nanofluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery in sandstone rocks, Egypt. J. Petrol. (2017), http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2017.01.006
4 M.I. Youssif et al. / Egyptian Journal of Petroleum xxx (2017) xxx–xxx

70

60

Oil recovery of IOIP, %

50
WF

40 NF, conc 0.01wt.%

NF, Conc 0.05%
30
NF, conc. 0.1wt.%
20 NF,conc. 0.5 wt.%

10

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
PV injected

Fig. 3. Recovery factor (RF) vs. pore volume (PV) injected for Core # 1

Table 3
Residual oil saturation (Sor) obtained after water flooding and Silica nanofluid flooding.

Oil saturation [ So], fraction

Core Before water After water After 0.01 wt% After 0.05 wt% After 0.1 wt% After 0.2 wt% After 0.5 wt%
No. flooding flooding nanoflooding nanoflooding nanoflooding nanoflooding nanoflooding
Core 1 0.9 0.422 0.408 0.34 0.302 – 0.416
Core 2 0.763 0.447 – 0.383 0.351 0.397 0.465

As shown in Fig. 4, the optimum silica concentration was 0.1 wt%.
At this concentration an oil recovery factor of 54% was achieved
compared to an oil recovery factor of 41.3% in the case of water
imbibition alone.
Introducing silica nanoparticles to the oil/water system was
observed to lower the interfacial tension (IFT), then the potential
to produce more trapped oil [13,14]. This may be due to the hydro-
philic part of the silica nanoparticles present in the aqueous phase
and the hydrophobic part exists in the oil phase, so the adhesive
forces between the two phases increases and the IFT decreases.
It was observed that within the range of silica nanoparticles
concentration of 0.2 and 0.5 wt% there is a drop in the oil recovery
when compared to the trend of other silica concentrations. As silica
surface is completely hydroxylated and each Si atom on the surface
is surrounded by OH groups [15], the surface charge of the silica
nanoparticles were determined in terms of protonation and depro-
tonation of these silanol groups. The resultant net charge of silica
nanoparticles surface controls to which extent the repulsion forces
keep particles dispersed in solution. The drop in the oil recovery, in
case of increasing the concentration of silica nanoparticles in pres-
ence of constant electrolyte concentration, may be due to the
increment of the deprotonation process of silanol groups at the
surface of nanoparticles which accelerates the coagulation process
forming a cumulative particles that block the pores hindering oil
production.
Comparing flooding in Core# 1 and flooding in Core# 2 we can
see that there is no difference in the recovery when using silica
nanofluid in a secondary recovery technique or in a tertiary recov-
ery technique, as at the end we get nearly the same results. As we
can see from Fig. 3 an increase of 13.28% in the oil recovery was
achieved when the silica tertiary recovery technique was followed
by water secondary recovery technique in Core #1. We can also see

60

50 WF

40 NF, Conc
0.05wt.%
NF, conc 0.1wt%
RF , %

30

NF, conc. 0.2wt%

20
NF, conc. 0.5wt.%

10

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
PV injected

Fig. 4. Recovery factor (RF) vs. pore volume (PV) injected for Core # 2.

Please cite this article in press as: M.I. Youssif et al., Silica nanofluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery in sandstone rocks, Egypt. J. Petrol. (2017), http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2017.01.006
 M.I. Youssif et al. / Egyptian Journal of Petroleum xxx (2017) xxx–xxx 5

from Fig. 4, an increase of 12.7% in oil recovery factor was achieved
when using silica nanofluid flooding as a secondary recovery tech-
nique compared to using water flooding as a secondary recovery
technique in Core# 2. This result will favour using water flooding
as a secondary recovery technique due to its low price and feasibil-
ity at the start of the recovery, then silica nanofluid flooding can be
used as a tertiary technique to utilize the benefit of silica nanopar-
ticles in enhancing the oil production.
In addition, recovery achieved by nanofluid of concentration
0.5 wt% is less than that achieved by water flooding. This is mainly
due to the accumulation of the silica nanoparticles through the
pores and pores throats, hence blocking the pores. Consequently,
this concentration could not be applicable as it could damage the
rock morphology.
Core flooding is carried on Core# 3 to investigate the effect of
silica nanofluid on water breakthrough. As shown in Fig. 5, it was
observed that silica nanofluid has an effect on delaying water
breakthrough; hence volumetric sweep efficiency increase and
more oil could be produced as confirmed also by Li and Torsaeter
[10]. The experiments were done at concentration of 0.1 wt% and
at constant injection rate of 0.5 ml/min.
In general, when the concentration of the silica nanofluid
increases within specific range, the random movement of particles
increases [7], thereby repulsive forces between molecules increase
and the rock wettability is strongly altered. This will increase the
amount of oil that could be recovered. However, as the concentra-
tion of nanoparticle in fluid increase the porosity and permeability
is affected causing permeability impairment [12]. Hence, the
important to work at 0.1 wt% silica nanofluid concentration, to
achieve the maximum oil recovery with minimum permeability
impairment.
3.1. Permeability impairment
Permeability was calculated using Darcy equation. The effect of
nanoparticles concentration and injection rate on the permeability
impairment was studied.
3.1.1. Effect of concentration
Based on the results shown in Table 4, as the concentration of
silica nanofluid increases the absolute permeability decreases, at
constant nanofluid injection rate of 0.5 ml/min. Maximum perme-
ability reduction of 60% due to nanofluid injection was observed at
0.5 wt% silica nanofluid concentrations. This result justifies that at
0.5 wt% nanofluid concentration the oil recovery by silica nanofluid
was the lowest of all concentration due to pore blockage.
3.1.2. Effect of injection rate
Nanoparticles retention is affected by the silica nanofluid injec-
tion rate. Due to the high velocity and the difference in density

100

80
WF
W/C , %

60
NF, conc.
0.1wt.%
40

20

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
PV injected

Fig. 5. Water cut vs. pore volume (PV) injected for Core# 3.

Table 4
Effect of silica nanoparticle concentration on permeability impairment at 0.5 ml/min injection rate.

Core No. k absolute before nanofluid injection Silica nanofluid concentration. k absolute after nanofluid injection k reduction
md [%] md [%]
Core# 2 285 0.05 231 19
Core# 3 325 0.1 195 40
Core# 1 587 0.5 233 60

Table 5
Effect of silica nanoparticle injection rate on permeability impairment at 0.05 wt% silica concentration.

Core No. k absolute before nanofluid injection Silica nanofluid injection rate k absolute after nanofluid injection k reduction
md [cc/min] md [%]
Core# 2 285 0.2 203 29
Core# 3 325 0.5 149 54
Core# 1 587 0.8 154 74

Please cite this article in press as: M.I. Youssif et al., Silica nanofluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery in sandstone rocks, Egypt. J. Petrol. (2017), http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2017.01.006
6 M.I. Youssif et al. / Egyptian Journal of Petroleum xxx (2017) xxx–xxx
between the silica nanoparticle and the brine, nanoparticles settle
down causing pore blockage. All the parameters are kept constant
except injection rate. Table 5 showed that the permeability impair-
ment increases as the injection rate increases.
4. Conclusions
 Silica nanofluid is environmentally compatible with sandstone
rocks.
 The amount of recovered oil with tertiary recovery using silica
nanofluid is slightly higher than that obtained by secondary
recovery method using silica nanofluid. This makes water flood-
ing followed by silica nanofluid flooding an effective recovery
scenario and an economically wise.
 Oil recovery factor increases by increasing the silica nanofluid
concentration up to an optimum concentration of 0.1 wt%
above, which the amount of recovered oil will decrease, with
increasing the silica nanofluid concentration.
 Silica nanofluid concentration of 0.1 wt% is the recommended
concentration to achieve the maximum oil recovery with mini-
mum permeability impairment, hence keeping the rock mor-
phology undamaged.
 Silica nanoparticles have the potential to increase oil recovery
by delaying the water breakthrough hence more oil could be
produced.
 Injecting the silica nanofluid at low injection rate decreases per-
meability impairment, while using silica nanoparticles at high
concentration will increase the permeability impairment but
will increase oil recovery up to a certain value.
Acknowledgment
Special thanks to Lab. Engineer Walid, for his valuable assis-
tance in the laboratory. Laboratory work was conducted at the
British University in Egypt.
Please cite this article in press as: M.I. Youssif et al., Silica nanofluid flooding for enhanced oil recovery in sandstone rocks, Egypt. J. Petrol. (2017), http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpe.2017.01.006
References
[1] G.S. Dahle, Investigation of how Hydrophilic Silica Nanoparticles Affect Oil
Recovery in Berea Sandstone, Petroleum Engineering and Applied Geophysics,
NTNU, Trondheim, Master thesis (2014).
[2] B. Ju, D. Shugao, L. Zhian, Z. Tiangoa, S. Xiatao, Q. Xiaofeng, A Study of
Wettability and Permeability Change Caused by Adsorption of Nanometer
Structured Polysilicon on the Surface of Porous Media, SPE Asia Pacific Oil and
Gas Conference and Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia (2002).
[3] R. Kelsall, I. Hamley, and M. Geoghegan, Nanoscale science and technology,
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex
PO19 8SQ, England (2005).
[4] J.H. Greff, Babadagli, Catalytic effects of nano-size metal ions in breaking
asphaltene molecules during thermal recovery of heavy oil, SPE146661-PA,
2013, doi: 10.2118/146661-PA.
[5] D. Wasan, A. Nikolov, K. Kondiparty, The wetting and spreading of nanofluids
on solids: Role of the structural disjoining pressure, Curr. Opin. Colloid
Interface Sci. 16 (4) (2011) 344–349.
[6] P.M. Mcelfresh, D.L. Holcomb, D. Ector, Application of nanofluid technology to
improve recovery in oil and gas wells (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/
154827-ms.
[7] A. Chengara, A.D. Nikolov, D.T. Wasan, Spreading of nanofluids driven by the
structural disjoining pressure gradient, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 280 (2004).
[8] A. Roustaei, J. Moghadasi, An Experimental Investigation of Polysilicon NP
Recovery Efficiencies Through Changes in Interfacial Tension and Wettability
Alteration, SPE International Oilfield Nanotechnology Conference, Noordwijk,
The Netherlands (2012).
[9] S. Li, L. Hendraningrat, O. Torsæter, Improved Oil Recovery by Hydrophilic
Silica Nanoparticles Suspension: 2-Phase Flow Experimental Studies,
presented at the International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC),
Beijing, China, March (2013).
[10] S. Li, O. Torsæter, An Experimental Investigation of EOR Mechanisms for
Nanoparticles Fluid in Glass Micromodel, Society of Core Analysts,
international Symposium, Avignon (2014).
[11] G. Chang, Factors Affecting Particle Retention in Porous Media, Emirates J. Eng.
Res. 12 (3) (2007) 1–7.
[12] E. Bjørnar, The Potential of Hydrophilic Silica Nanoparticles for EOR Purposes,
Petroleum Engineering and Applied Geophysics, NTNU, Trondheim, Master
thesis (2012).
[13] L. Hendraningrat, S. Li, O. Torsæter, A Coreflood investigation of nanofluid
enhanced oil recovery, J. Petrol. Sci. Eng. (2013) 128–138.
[14] J. Buckley, T. Fan, Crude Oil/Brine Interfacial Tensions, SCA-Presented at the
International Symposium of the Society of Core Analyst, Toronto, Canada
(2005).
[15] L.T. Zhuravlev, Concentration of hydroxyl groups on the surface of amorphous
silica, Langmuir 3 (1987) 316–318.