Surface Interactions between Water-in-Oil Emulsions with Asphaltenes and Electroless Nickel-Phosphorus Coating

Surface interactions between emulsion drops and substrate surfaces play an important role in many phenomena in industrial processes, such as fouling issues in oil production. Investigating the interaction forces between the water-in-oil emulsion drops with interfacially adsorbed asphaltenes and various substrates is of fundamental and practical importance in understanding the fouling mechanisms and developing efficient antifouling strategies. In this work, the surface interactions between water drops with asphaltenes and Fe substrates with or without an electroless nickel-phosphorus (EN) coating in organic media have been directly quantified using the atomic force microscope drop probe technique. The effects of asphaltene concentration, organic solvent type, aging time, contact time, and loading force were investigated. The results demonstrated that the adhesion between water drops and the substrates was enhanced with higher asphaltene concentration, better organic solvent to asphaltenes, longer aging time, longer contact time, and stronger loading force, which was due to the growing amount and conformational change of asphaltenes adsorbed at the water/oil interface. Meanwhile, the adhesion between the water drop and the EN substrate was much weaker than that with the Fe substrate. The bulk fouling tests also showed that EN coating had a very good antifouling performance, which was in consistence with the force measurement results. Our work sheds light on the fundamental understanding of emulsion-related fouling mechanisms in the oil industry and provides useful information for developing new coatings with antifouling performances.