Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 208 (2022) 109602

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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol

Application of Janus nanoparticles in enhanced oil recovery processes:

Current status and future opportunities
Zahra Tohidi 1, Alireza Teimouri 1, Arezou Jafari *, Reza Gharibshahi,
Mohammad Reza Omidkhah **
Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Janus nanoparticles (JNPs), as a new and special type of nanoparticles (NPs), have a great potential to use in
Janus nanoparticle enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes. The surfaces of JNPs have two or more distinct physical properties which
Enhanced oil recovery allow them to have different chemical behaviors at the same time. Nowadays, this type of nanoparticle has drawn
Viscosity
much attention in EOR. In this study, the application of JNPs in EOR processes is reviewed and JNPs are
IFT
Interface
compared with common NPs. Special features, synthesis methods, advantages, and disadvantages of the JNPs for
Wettability use in oil recovery methods are discussed. Also, the influence of the JNPs on the viscosity alteration, interfacial
tension (IFT) reduction, wettability alteration, and oil recovery factor are discussed by reviewing previous
conducted experimental and numerical studies. Despite all the studies conducted in this field, many challenges
are facing these materials for use at field-scale operations that are discussed in this study. Producing JNPs with
different bases such as metal oxides bases, synthesize a new JNPs at an industrial scale, the effect of reservoir’s
pressure and temperature, and development of new strategies are still needed to investigate in future studies to
find the mechanism of JNPs in oil reservoirs and utilize them in real EOR operations.

1. Introduction Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) and nanoparticles are injected into the

Global demand for oil and gas resources continues to grow due to
population increase and industrial development. However, considering
the limitations in exploration, production and also reservoir manage­
ment and maintenance, it is necessary to carry out studies to find novel
methods for increasing oil production in a way that will be economically
cost-effective. To achieve this goal, some EOR and stimulation tech­
niques were developed and applied in laboratory and field studies. They
are categorized into gas injection (CO2, N2, and air) (Iglauer et al.,
2019), chemical flooding (polymer, surfactant, nanoparticles, etc.) (Jha
et al., 2021), thermal treatment (steam injection) (Fan et al., 2021; Wu
et al., 2021), microbial methods (Niu et al., 2020), Liquid Nitrogen
Fracturing (a stimulation remedy to improve petrophysical properties of
the reservoir by thermal shock (cold shock)) (Huang et al., 2020) or a
combination these techniques (Kokal and Al-Kaabi, 2010).
In Chemical-based methods, polymers, surface active agents and a
combination of them, which consist of Surfactant-Polymer (SP) and
reservoir. The high interfacial tension between water and oil may also
result in high capillary forces, retaining the oil in the reservoir rock (Ali
et al., 2020b; Iglauer, 2017; Jha et al., 2018). Therefore, the main goal of
these methods is to reduce IFT or alter the wettability (Iglauer, 2017;
Iglauer et al., 2009, 2016, 2019; Jha et al., 2019, 2021; Wu et al., 2010).
Although each of these methods has its advantages, there are still some
limitations. The application of polymer flooding due to their low
injectivity, changing polymer properties specially viscosity reduction
under reservoir conditions and pore plugging effect (Li et al., 2021) is
limited. In surfactant flooding, owing to the high surfactant adsorption
on the rock surface (Tackie-Otoo et al., 2020), the surfactant loss in­
creases which leads to high surfactant consumption and increasing
flooding expenses and make the process uneconomically. To address
this, Alkali is added to the surfactant solution, but the presence of alkali
in ASP systems causes severe silicate scaling in production wells,
detrimental impact on polymer viscosity and problems related to the
clay swelling which results in pore plugging and permeability reduction.

* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: ajafari@modares.ac.ir (A. Jafari), omidkhah@modares.ac.ir (M.R. Omidkhah).
1
Authors have the same contribution.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2021.109602
Received 17 February 2021; Received in revised form 12 September 2021; Accepted 1 October 2021
Available online 4 October 2021
0920-4105/© 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Z. Tohidi et al.
Moreover, stimulation remedies including limitations too. As an
example, liquid nitrogen fracturing which is used in unconventional
(coal and shale) reservoirs, is not a complete process for improving oil
production (Akhondzadeh et al., 2020; Memon et al., 2020). In liquid
nitrogen fracturing, petrophysical properties of the reservoir (porosity,
permeability and conductivity) will be improved due to thermal shock
(cold shock) and as Mahesar et al. mentioned, the porosity in tight
carbonate reservoirs can be increased up to 73% (Mahesar et al., 2020).
However, the use of this remedy is still questionable because it is feasible
that the temperature difference between low temperature nitrogen and
high temperature well column causes casing and cementing failure.
Moreover, by entering cold nitrogen in the reservoir, the nitrogen
temperature grows fast due to high reservoir temperature which results
in the reduction of shocking and rock breaking process efficiency
(Huang et al., 2020).
Under this condition, finding a novel method that the benefits
outweigh its disadvantages is a high priority for researchers. In this
respect, nanoparticles have attracted researchers’ attention in recent
decades due to their prominent characteristics. They have various ap­
plications in the oil industry including exploration (gathering petro-
physical data, monitoring and providing images from subsurface zones
buy use of nanosensors) (Ponmani et al., 2013), drilling fluids
(improving lubricity, rheological and filtration characteristics of drilling
fluid, wellbore stability and avoiding bit balling) (Aftab et al., 2020a,
2020b; Ali et al., 2020a; El-Diasty and Salem Ragab, 2013). Moreover,
they use in cementing (improving mechanical properties and reducing
chemical shrinkage) (Alsaba et al., 2020), well completion and stimu­
lation (controlling of scale formation, fine migration and proppant
performance) (Awan et al., 2021; Fakoya and Shah, 2018; Zhang and
An, 2018) and maybe the most practical application that is in EOR.
The unique physicochemical characteristics of particles at the nano-
size, as compared to their bulk size, is one of the main reasons for the
development of the NPs in EOR. The surface-to-volume ratio of NPs is
very large due to their very small size and they can enter the pores
without being trapped (Ali et al., 2020b). Therefore, by using NPs, the
amount of injected material and as a consequence, the number of
damages caused by permeability reduction during flooding processes
decrease (Ayatollahi and Zerafat, 2012). In comparison to SP and ASP,
NPs have higher charge density and higher surface area. They have
lower adsorption on the rock surface and also cause lower scaling for­
mation. Moreover, the problems related to pore plugging are not severe
in NPs because of their small size (Ali et al., 2020b, 2021; Sun et al.,
2017). Moreover, adding NPs to surfactants can decrease surfactant
adsorption (Suresh et al., 2017). NPs are also more environmentally
friendly in comparison to chemicals used in chemical methods and
require much energy consumption to deform, so they are more useful for
high pressure, high-temperature reservoirs (Krishnamoorti, 2006).
However, NPs are thermodynamically unstable due to the high surface
energies and the large surface areas. Besides, separated NPs have a
strong tendency to particles aggregation. Therefore, the Production of
stable NPs needs careful process.
Different NPs such as SiO2, CuO, TiO2, Al2O3, ZnO, CaCO3 have been
frequently used in the EOR process and have shown promising results
(Hendraningrat et al., 2012; Sun et al., 2017). Based on the literature,
calcium carbonate and titanium oxide NPs have a great influence on
surface wettability. Also, according to the results of spontaneous
permeability experiments and core flooding, calcium carbonate and
silica NPs have great potential in the extraction of oil from carbonate
rock (Nazari Moghaddam et al., 2015).
Moslan et al. examined the effect of two aluminum oxide and zir­
conium NPs using cationic surfactant with different contact angle
2
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 208 (2022) 109602
experiments on the dolomite rock. They observed that using only the
NPs didn’t lead to wettability modification of the rock, but aluminum
oxide NPs/CTAB and zirconium NPs/CTAB flooding reduced contact
angle from 129◦ to 40◦ and 126◦ to 47◦ , respectively. This change of
contact angle for aluminum oxide NPs was due to smaller particle size
and contact surface in comparison to zirconium oxide NPs (Moslan et al.,
2016). Tajmiri et al. also used zinc oxide NPs in their experiments for
wettability alteration in one carbonate and three sandstone cores sam­
ples. They stated that in presence of NPs, oil recovery for the three
sandstone samples and the carbonate sample increased from 2.74, 4.3,
3.5 and 0% OOIP (Original Oil In Place) to 3.2, 17.57, 20.67 and 8.9%
OOIP, respectively. Besides, they observed that, by adding these NPs, the
point of intersection of the relative permeability graphs in both types of
cores shifted to the right, indicating a change in the wettability of the
rock toward water-wet (Tajmiri et al., 2015). NPs concentration and
adsorption are two related factors in nanofluid injection. Increasing the
concentration of NPs leads to more NPs adsorption on the rock surface.
Then, porosity and permeability diminish and hence cause the reduction
in oil recovery due to the pores plugging (Rajab and Hannora, 2015). In
this respect, Ju and Fan conducted laboratory experiments and modeling
studies by focusing on wettability and permeability alteration due to the
adsorption of hydrophobic and hydrophilic polysilicon NPs on the sur­
face of the sandstone. Based on the core flooding experiments, they
found that hydrophilic NPs with the size of 100–500 nm increase oil
recovery by 9 percent. Moreover, based on the modeling results, they
stated that the most appropriate concentrations of NPs were 2–3 wt.%
(Ju and Fan, 2009). Yu et al. (Yu et al., 2012) used flooding experiments
and investigated the adsorption of silica NPs on limestone, dolomite and
sandstone carbonate rocks. They observed that equilibrium adsorption
for these rocks was 5.501, 0 and 1.272 mg/g of rock. The highest amount
of NPs’ adsorption was on the limestone rock due to the electrostatic
forces between the rock and NPs. The small amount of adsorption on the
sandstone rock was due to the presence of shale and electrostatic drift
between the silica NPs and the sandstone. Giraldo et al. investigated the
effect of aluminum oxide NPs in nanofluid flooding in sandstone reser­
voirs. They concluded that the oil contact angle on the sandstone surface
decreased about 15◦ and the residual saturation in the sample increased
from 7% to 23%, which showed that the sample was water-wet. The
results also showed that alumina NPs with concentrations lower than
500 ppm had a greater ability for wettability alteration of sandstones
(Giraldo et al., 2013). The small size of NPs increases the possibility of
entry into the rock pores and more surface area of the rock will be
affected by the NPs. Hendraningrat et al. (Hendraningrat et al., 2013)
found that, by decreasing NPs’ size, their charge density increases and
the electrostatic drag force between the particles leads to produce more
fluid from the oil reservoir.
It was also found that in a system of silica nanofluid-calcite-oil, water
channel formation in the oil layer toward the calcite surface occurred in
presence of silica NPs due to increasing interaction energy between
calcite and water phase (Tohidi et al., 2020). In addition, it was observed
that in a system of oil-rock-silica nanofluid, there was an optimum
concentration of NPs for altering rock wettability. This optimum con­
centration decreased when the NPs’ charge increased (Salehzadeh. Y
et al., 2020).
NPs have also been additionally mixed with other materials (alkali,
surfactant, polymer and salt) in hybrid methods to improve the perfor­
mance of chemical flooding (Yousefvand and Jafari, 2018). For example,
Al-Anssari et al. investigated the performance of the anionic surfactant
Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) and the SiO2 NPs on the wettability
alteration of carbonate rock under reservoir conditions. Different con­
centrations of NPs, surfactants and different salinities were tested. The
Z. Tohidi et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 208 (2022) 109602

Table 1
Special features and comparison of homogenous and Janus nanoparticles
Special feature

NP 1. Pores blocking by NPs and thus reducing the oil recovery due to the adsorption on the rock surface and reducing porosity and permeability.
2. Most effective in the concentration of 2–3 wt%.
3. Unable to modify the wettability of the rock alone and proper to be used besides other chemicals.
JNP 1. Including the properties of both NPs and surfactants.
2. Exhibiting much stronger binding to liquid interfaces and consequently, promoting the stability of particle-coated interfaces in foams and emulsions.
3. More effective in particles with different distributions of functional groups than particles having each functional group concentrated only on one
hemisphere.
4. Have higher interfacial activity than NPs.
5. Well dispersing in different solvents with weak to strong polarity, including heptane, toluene, ethyl acetate, methanol, dimethyl sulfoxide and water.
6. More aggregations probability in solvents with high salinity.
7. Higher nanofluid viscosity than ones with NPs.
8. More effective in reducing the IFT in comparison to NPs.
Common in NP and 1. More environmentally friendly in comparison to chemicals used in chemical methods
JNP 2. Requiring much energy consumption to deform.
3. Reducing the amount of needed injected material and the number of damages caused by permeability reduction during flooding processes.
4. More useful for high pressure and high-temperature reservoirs than other chemicals.

results of contact angle and spontaneous permeability tests showed that
the application of NPs and surfactants together, caused the wettability of
the rock surface to change from oil-wet to strongly water-wet (Al-Ans­
sari et al., 2017). Arain et al. compared the bare (hydrophilic) and
hybrid (hydrophobic) silica NPs by focusing on the amount of their
adsorption on the surface of carbonate rocks under reservoir conditions
(Arain et al., 2020). The results showed that hybrid silica NPs have a low
level of adsorption on the surface of both oil/water-wet carbonate sur­
faces and formed a monolayer NPs cluster on the surface of the rock
which results in limited NPs aggregation in ambient and reservoir con­
ditions. In contrast, by use of bare NPs, the large amount of NPs clusters
precipitated on the surface of the solid and just small parts of them were
adsorbed on it reversibly. This means that detachment of adsorbed bare
NPs occurs only by simple solvent flushing. Despite all advantages of
common NPs, some studies reported the low efficiency of simple NPs
when they use alone and without any added chemical agent (Hen­
draningrat et al., 2012). Therefore, hybrid systems by adding polymer or
surfactant to NP are introduced to reduce the NP’s concentration and
size and improve their stability and displacement efficiency (Kvítek
et al., 2008; Shah et al., 2019). However, such a system was similar to
conventional chemical methods and no improvement was observed.
Under these circumstances, the researchers’ attention was drawn to the
fabrication of NPs to combine the advantages of surfactants and NPs into
a specific type of NPs. These novel NPs are called Janus nanoparticles
(JNPs).
JNPs are special types of NPs that comprise two different parts made
from different substances and consequently, they carry two different and
complementary chemistry structures (Giraldo et al., 2019; Luo et al.,
2016). Table 1 illustrates a comprehensive comparison between ho­
mogenous and Janus nanoparticles in detail.
JNP is a surfactant-nanoparticle system that bears properties of both
NP and surfactant. Suresh and Kuznetsov (2016) showed that the JNPs
remain effective at higher salinity conditions than non-functionalized
NPs, which agglomerate or gel in presence of salt (Suresh and Kuznet­
sov, 2016). It can be understood from the literature that the shape of the
JNPs and the chemistry of functional groups on their surface such as
their distribution on the surface have vital effects on the JNPs’ interfa­
cial behavior. Non-spherical JNPs in the shapes of rods, disk-like, sheet,
wedge, etc. Have been developed recently that showed a vital role at the
oil-water interface to stabilize the emulsions. For example, amphiphilic
nanosheets can stabilize toluene-in-water emulsions or alkyl gallate
microneedles are capable to stabilize emulsions (Mejia et al., 2012;
Tervoort et al., 2012). It has been reported that Wedge-shaped JNPs at
interfaces can yield oriented structures (Dendukuri et al., 2007).
It also has been reported that the particles’ function is improved
when the functional groups are distributed along the particle surface

Fig. 1. Schematic of the three processes of Masking, phase separation and self-assembly for producing JNPs.

3
Z. Tohidi et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 208 (2022) 109602

rather than concentrated on one hemisphere (Cheung and Bon, 2009;

Allen et al., 1999; Tuzar and

Fan et al., 2011; Luu et al., 2013; Singh et al., 2014). Besides, the

Lattuada and Hatton (2007)

Jiang and Granick (2009)
nonhomogeneous wetting distribution of JNPs enhances their binding to
liquid interfaces which improves the stability of the interfaces in foams

Jakobs et al. (2008)

Peng et al. (2006)

Kratochvíl, 1976 and emulsions. This plays an important role in a variety of applications

Liu et al. (2013)

Ho et al. (2008)
such as EOR, cosmetics, drug delivery, and food preservation (Drexler
et al., 2012; (Kokal, 2005) ; Wu et al., 2017). Another advantage of the
JNPs is that they bear interfacial activity and reduce IFT and can be
Ref.

dispersed in different polar solvents (Yin et al., 2019). Moreover, ac­

cording to previous studies, climbing films as well as elastic oil-water
- Hard to find the right molecules

interfaces made by JNPs can play positive roles in EOR applications

- Hard to find the design rules

(Giraldo et al., 2019; Luo et al., 2016; Yin et al., 2019).

- Less control of the JNPs

In this work, we presented a review of the works studying applica­
tions of JNPs in EOR and discussed the special features and potentials of
to self-assemble

JNPs in EOR. We also focused on the mechanisms of JNPs in EOR such as

polydispersity
Disadvantages

viscosity variation, IFT reduction and wettability alteration and

- Low yield

mentioned the simulation studies of JNPs in EOR. Finally, the challenges

and prospects and some suggestions for future studies to use JNPs in
EOR processes are presented.

2. Synthesis methods of JNPs

- Useful for inorganic-inorganic NPs, especially
- Control the amount of functionalized area

Creative methods are required to produce particles with two sides

including various physical and chemical properties. This has been a vital
for hybrid metal− metal oxide NPs.
- Particle-to-particle reproducibility

challenge in recent years and major progress in JNPs preparation has

- High yield of the bulk synthesis
- Big variety of functionalities

been achieved. Among the used synthesis approaches, three main

methods are introduced as strategies to synthesize JNPs. These methods
- Produce larger amounts

are masking, self-assembly and phase separation (Kaewsaneha et al.,

2013) which are briefly shown in Fig. 1. The masking technique com­
prises of exposing only one section of the NP surface to the reaction in
the reacting environment while the remaining part is covered by a
Advantages

proper fluid. This procedure gives the NP an asymmetric functionali­

zation (Lattuada and Hatton, 2011). Self-assembly of block copolymers
or competitive adsorption of incompatible ligands on the surface of NPs
is another main technique to prepare JNPs (Lattuada and Hatton, 2011).
Formation of micelles with core-shell structure due to segregation of insoluble blocks into the core.

Adsorption of two types of ligands, one hydrophilic and one hydrophobic, in a solution, on the

Placing nanoparticles on the surface of a polymer matrix for functionalizing the nanoparticles’

The self-assembly of the block copolymer is a flexible technique that has

An oil-in-water emulsion system, in which oil droplets comprise two incompatible polymers,

been applied to many different polymer types (Walther and Müller,

Functionalizing the exposed part of the nanoparticle surface with that functional groups.

Functionalization of nanoparticles by confining them at the interface between two fluids

2008). But, the method of competitive adsorption of ligands has been

less tried, and despite its high potential as suggested by some recent
Formation of incompatible polymeric structures after evaporation of the co-solvent

investigations and computer simulations (Jackson et al., 2004; Singh

Removing nanoparticles from the surface while bound with the desired species
The core is surrounded by a hydrophilic shell composed of hydrophilic blocks

et al., 2007), knowledge in this area is still limited (Walther and Müller,
Depositing nanoparticles on a hard surface which carries functional groups.

2008). Another general method for JNPs preparation is to take advan­

tage of the phase separation of different incompatible compounds. This
Using particles as a masking agent to produce small nanoparticles

can be achieved by using polymeric and inorganic materials or a com­

bination of both (Walther and Müller, 2013). However, choosing the
most suitable synthesis method depends on the application field, the
General synthesis methods of JNPs in comparison with each other.

amount needed, size and functionalities of nanoparticles (Walther and

homogeneously blended with the aid of a co-solvent.

Müller, 2008).
Competitive Adsorption of Incompatible Ligands

Removing nanoparticles from the soft substrate

In Table 2, different methods for synthesizing JNPs with a brief

explanation of their advantages and disadvantages are described.

3. JNPs studies in EOR researches

Block Copolymers self-assembly

Based on the published papers, the most common types of JNPs used
in EOR applications were silica-based or graphene-based JNPs. Silica-
surface of nanoparticles

Pickering Emulsion
Soft Flat Substrates

Particle Dispersion

based JNPs can be classified into three types. The first type is compos­
Hard Substrates

ite silica-based amphiphilic Janus nanosheets (CSAJN) with hydrophilic

and hydrophobic sides. CSAJNs are dispersed in different solvents with
weak to strong polarity, including heptane, toluene, ethyl acetate,
surface.

methanol, dimethyl sulfoxide and water. However, the solutions differ

in turbidity due to different levels of aggregation in each solution.
Synthesis Method

CSAJNs are stable at temperatures up to 70 C. However, in high salinity

◦
Separation
Assembly

conditions, they precipitate after several hours. Thus, for avoiding ag­
Masking

Phase
Self-

gregation of CSAJNs, this nanofluid should be prepared in freshwater.

Table 2

This problem limits the practical use of the CSAJNs in-field. A possible
solution for this problem can be modifying the hydrophilic carboxyl

4
Z. Tohidi et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 208 (2022) 109602

group of CSAJN to adapt to high salinity conditions (Yin et al., 2019). 4. Mechanisms of JNPs’ effects in EOR
The second type of silica JNPs is SiO2–C12. This JNP has an amide
group (-CONH) in addition to hydroxyl and methylene groups (which JNPs exert a great influence on oil recovery enhancement due to
gives hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity). An amidation reaction occurs their specific physical and chemical features. JNPs improve interfacial
during the modification process. The stability of SiO2–C12 JNPs changes and rheological parameters in the oil-water-rock system. These param­
with concentration (Wu et al., 2020). eters include water phase viscosity, IFT and rock surface wettability. We
The third silica-based type of JNPs is spherical SiO2 NPs, including a have tried to review the main mechanisms of JNPs’ performance in oil
non-uniform shell-like NiO in the water-side of SiO2, which exerts a recovery in the current section.
great influence on oil recovery even in low concentrations. NiO/SiO2
nanoparticles at pH = 7 have a zeta potential of about − 40 mV, which
4.1. Water viscosity increment
indicates excellent stability (Giraldo et al., 2019).
Graphene-based JNPs used in the EOR field include modified gra­
The accurate investigation of the rheological properties of displacing
phene oxide (GO) and graphene-based amphiphilic Janus nanosheets
and displaced fluids is very crucial. The viscosity of the displacing phase
(GAJN). Both of them have carbonyl/carboxyl (C– – O) aromatic (C–– C)
(the simplest is water) significantly influences the oil recovery. How­
and C–O–C groups. Also, GAJN has methyl and methylene groups that
ever, two main parameters that have a direct effect on oil recovery, are
confirm that alkyl chains have successfully attached to the surface of
Capillary number (Nc) and Mobility ratio (MR). The capillary number is
graphene oxide (Luo et al., 2016).
the ratio of viscose force to interfacial force, defined as Nc = vμ/σ . In this
Rather than these two common types of JNPs, molybdenum disulfide
equation, v is the velocity, μ is the fluid viscosity and σ is IFT at the
and magnetic JNPs also exist. The structure of MoS2 nanomaterial is
interface of the oil and water phase. The amount of remaining oil in the
similar to graphene nanosheets which is a two-dimensional (2D) layered
rock decreases by increasing Nc amount. Therefore increasing the vis­
nanomaterial (Lu et al., 2020). When synthesized nanosheets of MoS2
cosity of the displacement phase or decreasing the IFT can lead to
are modified by an alkylamine chain, they acquire amphiphilic char­
enhancement in oil recovery. Besides, MR between oil and water is
acteristics that enable them to change the rock wettability (Raj et al.,
described as equation (1) (Jones, 1966):
2019).
Magnetic JNPs combine magnetic properties with amphiphilic Kw

(1)
μw
characteristics of NPs and thus enable the manipulation of particle MR = Ko
behavior remotely under the exert of external magnetic fields (Choi μo

et al., 2011). Suspensions of magnetic and polar materials in Janus

where Kw and Ko denote to relative permeability of water and oil,
nanofluid solution simultaneously, change the magnetorheological
respectively and μw and μo refer to the viscosity of water and oil phases,
properties of nanofluids to dewatering crude oil emulsions. As reported
respectively. When the water phase is more mobile than the oil phase,
by (Ali et al., 2015), the efficiency of magnetic JNPs for removing water
the displacement is encountered with fingering and instabilities. A sta­
from oil-water emulsions is more than 95%.
ble oil displacement occurs when oil has more mobility than the water
Table 3 provides information about general types of JNPs in the EOR
phase (Jones, 1966). To that end, water mobility should be reduced. To
field, which are adapted from literature and patents. As it can be seen in
reduce water mobility, the viscosity of the water phase should increase
this table, synthesized Janus nanoparticles vary in size and shape. They
usually by adding polymers like poly-acryl-amid (Wang et al., 2018).
are spherical, flake-like and nanosheet with single/multi-layers in the
However, recent studies have shown that NPs and JNPs can also change
size range of 1–1000 nm. The zeta potential measurement of their sur­
water phase viscosity. For example, Giraldo et al. (2019) measured the
face shows the amount of − 25 mv to − 43 mv which refers to their
viscosity of SiO2 nanofluid and NiO/SiO2 Janus nanofluid at different
negative surface charge.
shear rates. They found that NiO/SiO2 Janus nanofluid had a higher

Table 3
General characteristics of JNPs introduced in the EOR field.
JNP type Size (thickness or Shape Zeta potential (mV)/Stability time Surface Ref.
diameter/nm) wettability

Articles
SiO2–C12 30 Spherical NA/9 h NA Wu et al. (2020)
CSAJN 2.6 Flake-like − 39.8/At pH > 6 10.9◦ /140.6◦ Yin et al. (2019)
For 6 h
SiO2/NiO 94 Spherical − 40/At pH~7 NA Giraldo (2018)
For 3 months
SiO2 10 Spherical − 43/More than 3 months 40 /158
◦ ◦
Liu et al. (2020b)
GAJN 1 Single-layer NA/about 30 days NA Luo et al. (2016)
sheet
NH2–SiO2–C8 300 particle − 35/NA 114◦ Xue et al. (2017)
MoS2 1.2 Single-layer − 25/NA NA Raj et al. (2019)
sheet
P(MMA-AA-DVB)/ 200 particle NA 24◦ Ali et al. (2015)
Fe3O4
SiO2 4.2–10.1 particle − 38.3/about 6 months 167◦ Liu et al. (2020a)

JNP type Size (thickness or Shape Stability time Surface Ref.

diameter/nm) wettability

Patents
Lamellar crystal 0.5–5 Multilayer NA/Stable in common acidic and basic solvents NA Cheng et al. (2017)
sheet
Graphene-base 1 Sheet NA/Very small precipitates after 30 days NA Ren et al. (2017)
Graphene-base 10–1000 Spherical NA/Stable even at the temperature over 500 ◦ C and NA (Suresh and Kuznetsov,
pH range 3–12 2016)
CeO2-caprylate 3–20 Spherical NA/Good stability over time NA Chane-Ching, 2004

5
Z. Tohidi et al.
viscosity than SiO2 nanofluid. This is because of the attractive binding
energy of NiO in the structure of NiO/SiO2 JNPs which causes more
adhesion amongst particles. Moreover, the results of their measurements
showed that the viscosity behavior of NiO/SiO2 JNPs was similar to the
Herschell-Bulkley model (Tang and Kalyon, 2004). When the shear rate
increases, the viscosity decreases, which is similar to the behavior of
non-Newtonian shear-thinning fluids (Giraldo et al., 2019). Yin et al.
(2019) and Wu et al. (2020), instead of measuring bulk viscosity,
measured the strength of interfacial film by focusing on superficial vis­
cosity. By increasing the shear rate, the strength of the interfacial film
was weakened and slowly destroyed, which caused decreasing the
interfacial shear viscosity. Application of CSAJN and SiO2–C12 JNPs
together increased the oil/brine interfacial shear viscosity which led to
more efficiency in oil and water separation at the interface resulting in
more oil production (Wu et al., 2020).
4.2. Interfacial tension reduction
In the water flooding process, the efficiency of recovered oil is low
due to the high IFT between oil and water and also the low value of
water viscosity. When the IFT between oil and water is high, the pres­
sure difference between phases, i.e. the capillary pressure, traps oil
droplets in the porous media (Fanchi, 2005). As reported previously, the
presence of NPs in the injection fluid reduces the IFT between injection
fluid and oil and leads to releasing oil droplets from pores of porous
media and improved oil production. JNPs, due to the amphiphilic
structure, are more effective in reducing the IFT in comparison to NPs.
Several studies have reported IFT reduction in the water-oil interface in
presence of JNPs. Yin et al. (2019) studied the influence of CSAJN on
oil-water interfacial properties in a toluene-brine system. They also
performed dynamic IFT measurements and showed that in the
toluene-brine system, the addition of non-amphiphilic nanosheets
reduced the IFT only from 30.18 to 28.42 mN/m. This is while CSAJN
could reduce the IFT to 17.21 mN/m by adsorption of CSAJN at the
interface (Yin et al., 2019).
In another case, where SiO2–C12 JNPs were used, it was observed
that by increasing the concentration of SiO2–C12 JNPs up to 0.05%, the
value of IFT decreased from 30 mN/m in the oil/brine system down to
2.28 mN/m (Wu et al., 2020).
The studies on the effect of silica gel NPs in reservoir conditions
showed that silica nanofluid injection could prevent asphaltene
Fig. 2. The schematic diagram for mechanisms of JNPs influence on oil displacement.
6
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 208 (2022) 109602
aggregation and precipitation as well as altering the wetting properties
of porous media from oil-wet toward water-wet (Betancur et al., 2016;
Rosales et al., 2006). In addition, NiO/SiO2 JNPs showed more IFT
reduction in comparison with SiO2 NPs in a condition in which heavy oil
contained asphaltene. The IFT amount has been changed from 26.2
mN/m to 20.5 mN/m and 17.5 mN/m in the cases of using SiO2 NPs and
NiO/SiO2 JNPs, respectively (Giraldo et al., 2019). This was because Ni
molecules prefered to react with the heteroatoms presented in heavy oil
(N, S, O) and made coordinate bonds (Giraldo et al., 2019). Hosseinpour
et al. (2013) showed that NiO had a high asphaltene adsorption ca­
pacity. They also stated that the asphaltene adsorbed on the metal oxide
surfaces mostly because of the interactions of acid and base in the me­
dium as well as the electrostatic attractions. The interfacial tension
measurements of the graphene-based JNPs also showed significant IFT
reduction at toluene-brine (Luo et al., 2017) and heptane-brine in­
terfaces (Luo et al., 2016).
These studies showed that the IFT between oil and water phases
decreases. However, it is necessary to mention that since the IFT
reduction is not so significant, it cannot be the only factor to enhance the
oil recovery.
4.3. Rock surface wettability alteration
One of the approaches to reduce residual oil saturation is to alter the
wettability of porous surfaces from oil-wet to water-wet. The main
purpose is to achieve complete water wetness of the surface when the oil
droplets lose their tendency to stay in pores. This will result in increasing
the oil relative permeability. The high surface-to-volume ratio in NPs is a
reason for their high surface energy which, upon adsorption, alters the
system wettability. In this regard, the contact angle measurements
showed that upon using both SiO2 NPs and NiO/SiO2 JNPs, porous
media was more likely to prefer the water phase than the oil phase;
because NPs/JNPs increased the ratio of surface area/volume in water.
Moreover, higher polar groups available in nanofluids increased the
affinity of rock surfaces to the water phase (Giraldo et al., 2019). In this
case, NiO/SiO2 JNPs could change the rock wettability by about 12◦
while SiO2 NPs were capable to alter the wettability by only 3◦ .
In a study on the SiO2–C12 nanoparticles, experimental results
showed that, at different concentrations of JNPs, the core sample surface
was changed from oil-wet to water-wet. The authors stated that
SiO2–C12 JNPs adsorbed on the rock surface, the hydrophobic carbon
Z. Tohidi et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 208 (2022) 109602

chain removed the oil molecules from the rock surface and adhered to
the rock surface itself. On the other hand, the hydrophilic face of JNPs
was exposed to the fluid phase and water molecules could adhere to this
face, resulting in the wettability alteration from oil-wet to water-wet.
While the contact angle of oil on the rock surface changed from
115.59◦ to 44.26◦ after the presence of 0.02 wt% SiO2–C12 JNPs (Wu
et al., 2020).
Fig. 2 depicts the mechanism of improved oil displacement by JNPs
where they form Pickering emulsions. JNPs adsorb on the oil phase and
change the contact angle of the oil droplet at the three-phase region (oil-
water-solid) until the oil drops detach from the solid surface. The JNPs
also reduce the IFT of the water-oil system leading to converting big oil
drops into smaller ones and forming Pickering emulsion.

4.4. Oil displacement mechanisms

Nanoparticles are adsorbed on the rock surface and form a wedge

film in the contact area of the oil-water-solid. The wedge film generates
a structural disjoining pressure leading to the removal of oil droplets
from the rock surface when the disjoining pressure is stronger than the Fig. 4. Slug like displacement by an interfacial film.
oil droplet adhesion.
Besides these mechanisms, Luo et al. (2016) focused on
As shown in Fig. 4, this mechanism occurs as a result of forming an
graphene-based Janus nanosheets and stated that the efficiency of such
elastic interfacial film between oil and water phases. When the hydro­
nanosheets is very high even at low concentrations. Based on laboratory
dynamic condition is fully strong, the formation of a solid-like interfacial
experiments and observations, they suggested two oil displacement
film leads to the separation of two phases. This film has considerable
mechanisms for Janus nanosheets. These two mechanisms are described
bending resistance which reforms the interface to its original shape after
below. It is also worth mentioning that a considerable minimum amount
a disruption (Luo et al., 2016).
of the adsorption of nanoparticles might be necessary for these two
Moreover, Luo et al. noticed that due to the amphiphilic nature of
mechanisms for a successful displacement.
graphene-based nanosheets, they can reach the oil-water interface
spontaneously and reduce IFT even at saline conditions (4 wt% NaCl and
A) Climbing film growth mechanism
1 wt% CaCl2). However, they did not report IFT data after nanosheets
treatment. If we look carefully, it seems that mechanisms proposed by
In this mechanism which occurs at the moderate hydrodynamic
Luo et al. are very similar to IFT reduction and wettability alteration
condition in water-wet systems, Janus nanosheets form a film at the oil-
mechanisms. It is a questionable issue that can we categorize them as IFT
rock interface which grows gradually over time. At first, the adsorption
reduction and wettability alteration mechanisms or not?
of nanosheets causes increasing in nanosheets concentration at the oil-
In an experimental study, the mentioned two mechanisms were also
rock interface result in the formation of the three-phase zone (nano­
observed where the nanofluid containing CSAJNs was added to the
sheets, oil and rock surface) and IFT reduction. The IFT reduction causes
brine-oil system as shown in Fig. 5. The oil-brine interface was concave
Marangoni stress at this three-phase zone. Then, by passing the time, the
at first because of the high IFT. However, when the nanofluid was
film grows due to the ongoing supply of nanosheets from the nanofluid
injected, the CSAJNs accumulated at the interface and formed a film that
and oil encapsulated from the rock surface (Fig. 3a and Fig. 3b). Finally,
gradually climbed the wall. The Marangoni stress due to the increased
the induced Marangoni stress sweeps the oil forward (Fig. 3c).
concentration of nanosheets at the interface was the cause of the
climbing film (Chen et al., 2011; Cheng and Velankar, 2008). The
B) Slug-like displacement mechanism
climbing film encapsulated the oil phase and pushed the oil in the flow

Fig. 3. Climbing film growth mechanism in oil displacement by Janus nanoparticles a) Injection of Janus Nanofluid b) Growing of climbing film due to Marangoni
stress c) Detaching oil from the rock surface.

7
Z. Tohidi et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 208 (2022) 109602

Fig. 5. Elastic film formation at the interface of oil and brine by CSAJNs.

Table 4
Experimental conditions of JNPs injection and their influences on oil recovery parameters.
JNP type Injection system Por.a Perm. PV JNPs preparation Oil Viscosity Temperature salinity ref.
(%) (mD) process (mPa⋅s) at 25 ◦ C (◦ C)

Experimental conditions
CSAJN Core flood ~20 ~60 10 Self-assembly 31 30–70 4.0 wt% NaCl Yin et al.
+1.0 wt% CaCl2 (2019)
SiO2/NiO five-spot pattern NA NA 2 Stöber method (Pereira NA 25 Saltwater Giraldo et al.
micromodel et al., 2007) (2019)
Modified Core flood 16–40 2.5–2500 3–4.5 hydrothermal process 100 30 98171 mg/L Raj et al.
MoS2 (2019)
Janus-SiO2 Sand-pack 30–37 NA 1.5–3 Ordinary method 479.8 30–80 5727 mg/L Liu et al.
(2020b)
SiO2–C12 Core flood 11–12 21–28 4 Pickering emulsion. 3.43 at 50 C◦
50 NA Wu et al.
(2020)
GAJN Core flood 24–28 54–132 5 chemical oxidation of 75 25 4.0 wt% NaCl + Luo et al.
graphite 1.0 wt% CaCl2 (2017)
JGO Core flood 37 500 0.5 Pickering emulsion. 4895.8 60 8068 mg/L Jia et al.
(2020)
Janus-SiO2 Core flood NA NA 1.5 novel “cut the Gordian NA 30–80 5727 mg/L Liu et al.
knot” (2020b)
method

JNP type JNP concentration Viscosity IFT reduction Contact Angle Oil Recovery Enhancement due Total Oil Recovery ref.
(wt.%) increment (%) (%) alteration to JNP (%) factor (%)

Oil recovery results

NS-DTABb 2 NA 45.62 50◦ 10.4 59.3% Dai et al.
(2019)
Modified 0.005–0.01 NA 75–80 77 -NA
◦
15.5–17.65 62.12–62.65 Raj et al.
MoS2 (2019)
NiO–SiO2 0.1 30.9 25 12◦ 20 60 Giraldo
(2018)
Janus-SiO2 0.15–0.2 282.9 55 – 14.5–17.3 21.1–26.6 Liu et al.
(2020b)
GAJN 0.005–0.01 NA 48-NA 71 -NA
◦
10.2–15.2 78.4–84.8 Luo et al.
(2017)
CSAJN 0.005–0.01 32 43–57 NA 18.31–20 59–62 Yin et al.
(2019)
Janus-SiO2 0.5 NA 22 43 21.1–26.6 NA Liu et al.
(2020)
a
The rock type in all of these experiments is sandstone.
b
Nano-silica decorated by dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide.

direction leading to a reduction in residual oil saturation. Besides,
shaking of the system makes a flat film at the interface with high elas­
ticity that can push the oil forward (Yin et al., 2019).
It was also stated that, when the diameter of NPs is more than 10 nm, if
the adsorption energy is greater than thermal energy, the particle
adsorption will be irreversible. In such a condition, the total toluene/brine
interfacial area is decreased because of drop coalescence. Then the
enhanced CSAJN interfacial concentration forms a Marangoni-originated
film by pushing the toluene upward in the wall (Yin et al., 2019).
5. Oil recovery efficiency by JNPs
Table 4 summarizes experimental conditions and some results on the
IFT reduction, contact angle alteration and oil recovery efficiency values
after injection of Janus nanofluid, respectively. The experimental re­
searches in this field were almost done on sandstone rock with a
permeability of ~2.5–2500 mD. The injection systems were core-
flooding, micromodel and sand-pack. The base fluid of nanofluids
mostly included salts with different salinities less than 10000 mg/L and
the tests were done in the temperature range of 25–80 ◦ C. In addition,
these experiments include recovery of oil with the viscosity of ~30 mPa
s at 25 ◦ C and heavy oil with the viscosity of ~4500 mPa s.
Based on the results of Table 4, the most common concentration of
JNPs was 0.01 wt% which could increase the total oil recovery factor up
to 84.8% in the case that Graphene-based amphiphilic nanosheets have
been used. Among used JNPs, modified MoS2 had the most IFT reduction
of 80%. Graphene-based amphiphilic nanosheets caused also the oil
contact angle to change by 71◦ even in an ultra-low concentration of
0.005 wt% (Rosales et al., 2006). By using silica-based JNPs with
0.005–0.01 wt% concentration, the oil enhancement efficiency
increased to 20% more than water injection recovery. This recovery is
more than four times greater than non-amphiphilic NPs with an effi­
ciency of less than 5% under similar conditions (Giraldo, 2018; Luo
et al., 2016; Yin et al., 2019).

8
Z. Tohidi et al.
6. Simulation studies on JNPs application in EOR
For an efficient EOR process, in addition to macroscopic features,
microscopic processes should also be investigated. For the macroscopic
scale, experiments provide valuable information however, investigating
the microscopic aspects requires studying molecular dimensions which
is not accessible to the experimental equipment. Here, simulation tools
are utilized to realize the molecular mechanisms in the context of NPs
and JNPs application in EOR. Some researchers used dissipative particle
dynamics (DPD) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. For example, Luu
et al. used dissipative particle dynamics simulations to investigate the
equilibrium behavior of ellipsoidal Janus nanoparticles at oil-water in­
terfaces (Luu et al., 2013). By changing the aspect ratio of the Janus
nanoparticles, the orientation of the nanoparticles at the interface
changes. Their simulation results can be useful for the design of Pick­
ering emulsions. Lattuada et al. used Monte Carlo simulations to design
Janus nanoparticles for controlled self-assembly applications (Lattuada
and Hatton, 2007). De Graaf et al. studied the electrostatic properties of
Janus spheres with unequal charge densities on both hemispheres (De
Graaf et al., 2012). They introduce a method to compare
primitive-model Monte Carlo simulations of the ionic double layer with
predictions of (mean-field) nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann theory.
Between simulation tools, Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations are
observed more in the application of EOR. Molecular Dynamics (MD)
simulation solves Newton’s equations of motion numerically for
different atoms and thereby provides an efficient tool to analyze the
physical movements of atoms (Sharma et al., 2019).
Li et al. (2020) simulated three types of hydrophilic, hydrophobic
and amphiphilic silica nanoparticles. The desired spherical NP is carved
out from the bulk amorphous silica. Unsaturated silicon atoms are
grafted by the functional groups of H or/and CH3 to have different hy­
drophilicity characteristics. Comparison among these three types of
silica NPs at the oil-brine interface by MD simulation indicated that NPs
were adsorbed at the oil-brine interface, while salt ions were depleted
from the interface. Moreover, all three types of NPs made water mole­
cules disordered at the interface but had a negligible effect on IFT (Li
et al., 2020).
MD simulation has been used to study the self-assembly of JNPs and
functionalized NPs and their influence on the stability of oil/water
emulsions (Fu et al., 2015; Garbin et al., 2012; Udayana Ranatunga
et al., 2010; Xiang et al., 2017). The MD simulation on the self-assembly
of amphiphilic nanosheets at the oil-water interface has also shown that
the rotation of amphiphilic nanosheets at the oil/water interface is
greatly restricted, meanwhile, the nanosheets’ configuration facilitates
their favorable orientation thereby leading to more stable emulsion
(Xiang et al., 2017).
The impact of surface chemistry of silica JNPs with a diameter of 3
nm on their performance at the water-decane interface was studied by
MD simulations. Methyl (CH3) and hydroxyl groups (OH) were added on
the silica surface as hydrophobic and hydrophilic sides, respectively. It
was shown that JNPs with the same diameter as NPs showed less contact
angle at the oil-water interface. Also, water and decane molecules had
more density at the interface in presence of JNPs. These results prove
that JNPs are useful for designing Pickering emulsions (Fan et al., 2011).
Based on MD simulations’ results, some parameters influence IFT
change due to JNP diffusion at the interface. Size, fluid density and
surface tension have an important influence on the diffusion of JNPs at
the interface of two immiscible fluids. By increasing the amphiphilicity
of JNPs, the diffusion slows down due to the formation of a denser layer
at the interface (Rezvantalab et al., 2015).
7. Challenges and prospects
Despite recent progress in the investigation and application of JNPs
by considering their special characteristics and high potential in
enhanced oil recovery, there are still some controversial challenges. It is
9
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 208 (2022) 109602
a fact that JNPs are in the early stages of their development and it seems
reasonable that most of the researches carried out based on laboratory
studies, but the study of JNPs in the field application and under reservoir
conditions should take into account.
Despite mentioned works, there are still a lot of aspects that need to
be investigated. To a fundamental understanding of JNPs behavior in
porous media, proper selection of materials and reaching optimum
conditions for injection of JNPs, comprehensive simulation studies are
necessary which remains a challenge. To deal with this, at first, suitable
mathematical models should be present to describe these processes.
By meticulously examining experimental conditions presented in
Table 4 (section 5), it is understood that no experimental work is done
on the carbonate rocks and all of them are based on sandstones. Due to
high heterogeneity in carbonate rocks and intricated production mech­
anisms in these reservoirs, some future works should focus on this issue.
Stability and adsorption of JNPs are crucial factors that exert great in­
fluence on their application. However, in most studies, the stability of
Janus nanoparticles was reported qualitatively and none of them
measured the adsorption amounts. It is very important to measure these
parameters in the laboratory and report it very exactly to reach a
comprehensive understanding of JNPs performance. It is worthwhile to
mention that making JNPs should not be limited to just silica and gra­
phene bases. For example, JNPs with metal oxides can also provide
improvement of efficiency of EOR process by the addition of thermal
effects that lead to viscosity modifications. Moreover, by providing JNPs
with various bases, it is feasible to develop the applications of JNPs in
the area rather than enhanced oil recovery such as designing drilling
fluid, well cementation and well completion/stimulation. In addition,
apply new synthesis methods (for example, as mentioned previously,
Cut the Gordian Knot Method) and updating the fabrication process of
JNPs can be helpful in the development and industrial applications of
JNPs. From the practical point of view, the performance of Janus
nanoparticles in harsh conditions (at the reservoir pressure and tem­
perature, in high saline reservoirs) should be taken into account for the
application evaluation. Particularly, in a high salinity condition, ag­
gregation of JNPs could happen which affects the performance. There­
fore, modifying the hydrophilic sites would be suggested. The other
factors influencing the application of JNPs in EOR include cost and
environmental risk assessment which are not well noticed in researches.
8. Conclusions
This paper focused on the comprehensive review of the most recent
development in a novel surfactant-nanoparticles system called Janus
nanoparticles. The reviewed literature illustrated that there are some
limitations in the use of common chemicals in EOR methods. Due to
some of the unique properties of JNPs such as high surface to volume
ratio, presence of the functional groups on their surface, better perfor­
mance at saline condition, high interfacial activity and better binding to
the liquid surface to reduce IFT and good dispersion in a different polar
solvent, they can address problems in traditional EOR methods and
consider as an effective chemical agent in enhanced oil recovery. JNPs
with different shapes of spheres, rods, disk-like, nanosheets, wedge, etc.,
have been developed recently and showed a vital role at the oil-water
interface to stabilize the emulsions. In addition, their shape and distri­
bution of functional groups on the surface affect the JNPs’ behavior at
the interfaces.
Silica and Graphene-based JNPs are the most well-known JNPs
which showed great potential in enhancing oil recovery in sandstone
reservoirs. Still, their performance on carbonate rock is not investigated
meticulously. Recently, some researches were done on other types of
Janus nanoparticles like magnetic JNPs which have magnetic properties
besides amphiphilic properties.
JNPs affect EOR process with three rock-fluid mechanisms including
water viscosity increment, interfacial tension reduction and wettability
alteration. Two oil displacement mechanisms of JNPs consist of climbing
Z. Tohidi et al.
film growth and slug-like displacement are introduced. The first mech­
anism is most probable in homogenous NPs because of their more af­
finity to adsorb on the rock surface and the second mechanism is more
probable for JNPs which quickly form an elastic film at the oil-water
interface. The results of experimental studies revealed JNPs have good
stability in ambient conditions. However, their stability under reservoir
condition is questionable and need special attention in future studies.
The most common concentrations of JNPs are 0.005 and 0.01 wt%
which based on experimental conditions and chemical agents formula­
tion, improves oil recovery up to 20%, reduces IFT up to 80% and
changes contact angle up to 77◦ .
In addition to experimental researches on JNPs applications in the
EOR field, some researchers simulated systems to investigate micro­
scopic aspects of Janus nanoparticles effects at interfaces with some
simulation tools like Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD), Monte Carlo
and Molecular Dynamics simulations. The simulation results can help
the better design of JNPs shape for the desired goal. Based on MD
simulation results, Size, fluid density and surface tension affect the
diffusion of JNPs at the interface of two immiscible fluids.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
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