Oil Recovery from Nanoporous Media via Water Condensation

GIMENEZ, ROCIO; BELLINO, MARTÍN G.; BERLI, CLAUDIO L. A.

ADVANCED MATERIALS INTERFACES

WILEY

Año: 2019 vol. 6

2196-7350

Oil-nanoporous materials interplay is ubiquitous in oil-recovery from unconventional reservoirs, environmental clean-up and membrane technology, so there is a genuine need for novel approaches that can monitor, manipulate and also extract the oil present in nanoporous media. Here we demonstrate a water condensation-assisted method of extracting oil from nanopores. Under cooling-induced condensation at room conditions, distinctive droplet-modes act as both decoupling and collecting elements to transport oil from the pore space towards the nanomaterial surface after water evaporation. We were even able to visualize the movement of the oil through the nanoporous network by taking advantage of the interference response of visible light in a nanoporous thin-film platform. The method and results presented in this work open different routes to exploit oil-water-nanopore interactions and enable novel perspectives for oil-recovery and environmental clean-up.