Covalent functionalized magnetic nanoparticles for crude oil recovery

FOSSATI, ANA; JACOBO, SILVIA; M. A. MARTINS ALHO

MATERIALS CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2019 vol. 238

0254-0584

The purpose of this work is to prepare and characterize new materials based on nanoparticles (NPs) with potential application in the removal of oils.For this purpose, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were covalent functionalized with a styrene-maleic acid copolymer through superficial silanization (MSM), and its adsorption properties were explored and compared to MNPs from crude oil and from brine oil solutions. Magnetic properties enhance recovering and reuse of nanoparticles.As results of these experiments, we found that MSM have higher capacity than MNPs for oil removal from solutions (95% of efficiency at a 0.1 g MSM/L concentration), and more than 90% of the sorption capacity remained after 5 successive sorption-washing cycles, suggesting an excellent reusability. MSM nanofluids were more effective than MNPS for oils displacement in capillary, and it was attributed to MSM tensioactive properties. This behavior was confirmed by the measurement of contact angle for an oil drop in contact with the corresponding nanofluid. MSM were examined also as a crude oil collector using magnetic fields.The reported results show promising data for the separation of the petroleum crude oil from aqueous solution in environmental pollution cleanup.