Probing the intrinsically oil-wet surfaces of pores in North Sea chalk at subpore resolution.

ABSTRACT: Pore surface properties control oil recovery. This is especially true for chalk reservoirs, where pores are particularly small. Wettability, the tendency for a surface to cover itself with fluid, is traditionally defined by the angle a droplet makes with a surface, but this macroscopic definition is meaningless when the particles are smaller than even the smallest droplet. Understanding surface wetting, at the pore scale, will provide clues for more effective oil recovery. We used a special mode of atomic force microscopy and a hydrophobic tip to collect matrices of 10,000 force curves over 5- x 5-mum(2) areas on internal pore surfaces and constructed maps of topography, adhesion, and elasticity. We investigated chalk samples from a water-bearing formation in the Danish North Sea oil field

SUBMITTER: Hassenkam T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2669393 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature