Descripción del proyecto
Nuevos conocimientos sobre el comportamiento de flujo de los nanofluidos
Los nanofluidos son suspensiones coloidales de partículas sólidas nanométricas en un fluido base. Una de sus propiedades más singulares es su comportamiento de flujo modificado en superficies derivado de las fuerzas internas estructurales entre nanoespecies, lo que permite una mayor una recuperación de petróleo en comparación con las tecnologías de salmuera convencionales. El objetivo del proyecto NANOSLIP, financiado por las Acciones Marie Skłodowska-Curie, es comprender mejor el comportamiento de los nanofluidos en la interfaz con el petróleo. En concreto, sus investigadores estudiarán la manera en que los nanofluidos de película ultradelgada pueden reducir la resistencia en respuesta al cizallamiento entre un líquido inmiscible y una superficie sólida mediante técnicas de sonda coloidal. Una mayor comprensión del comportamiento de los nanofluidos favorecerá su uso en la recuperación de petróleo, la lubricación, la disipación de calor, la recuperación de suelos, la nanomedicina y la estabilidad coloidal.
Objetivo
Nano-fluids (NFs) are colloidal suspensions of nano-species (NS) that are electrostatically or sterically stabilised, with aqueous NFs including nanoparticle suspensions (silica, sulfate latex), polyelectrolytes, and self-assembled structures including micelles, polymersomes and liposomes. NFs are used in many industrial/practical applications, including controlling colloidal assembly of larger nano- and micro-sized species in solution, improving heat flux in industrial processes and solar collectors, reducing friction in oils and greases, enhanced drug delivery and as MRI contrast agents. A unique property of NFs is their modified spreading/flowing behaviour on surfaces due to internal structuring forces between NS, which enables NFs to displace immiscible liquids from surfaces. This enhanced spreading/flowing behaviour has demonstrated enhanced oil recovery compared to standard brine solutions and has been rationalised as due to a reduction of friction at the NF/oil interface. Aside from the presence of a stable nano-thin NF film beneath oil during displacement being confirmed optically via interferometry, there are no experiments to date that have probed this interface directly, and thus the friction/drag reducing properties at the liquid/NF interface remain unexplored. The scientific goal of this proposed project is to gain a better understanding of liquid flow at a liquid/NF interface, in particular, how the presence of an ultrathin film of NFs – with enhanced spreading and internal properties – can reduce drag in response to shear between an immiscible liquid and a solid surface via colloidal probe atomic force microscopy. Understanding this phenomenon will fill the current knowledge gap in the fields of NFs and boundary slip and will have direct impact on current applications of NFs in oil recovery, lubrication, heat dissipation, soil remediation, nanomedicine, and colloidal stability.
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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
BS8 1QU Bristol
Reino Unido