Ultra-stable CO₂-in-water foam by generating switchable Janus nanoparticles in-situ

The surface of silica nanoparticles (NP) may be covalently grafted with two amino ligands to balance colloidal stability and interfacial activity via formation of in situ Janus particles. The modified NP may be combined with a like-charged diamine surfactant to create ultra-stable CO₂ foam at low NP concentrations.

The NP colloidal stability was measured up to 80 °C in 230 g/L TDS brine with dynamic light scattering. The NP surface was characterized using zeta potential, TEM, TGA, conductometric and potentiometric titrations, NMR and interfacial measurement. CO₂/brine foam was generated at 60-80 °C and 15 MPa and apparent viscosity was measured vs foam quality. The foam stability was measured in-situ with an optical microscope.

Upon adding only 0.1 wt% NP, ultra-stable CO₂ foam was observed at 60 °C with a bubble coarsening rate 3 orders of magnitude lower than with surfactant alone. Foam bubbles were spherical with NP present, but became polyhedral for the much less stable surfactant-only foams. For this novel like-charged surfactant-NP system, the limited surfactant adsorption on the NP resulted in NP stabilized CO₂ foam, while maintaining NP colloidal stability at high surfactant concentrations and high salinity, providing a new perspective of NP-surfactant design.