Interfacial properties, decompression, and augmented injection of amphiphilic carbon dots and surfactant mixtures

The mixing properties of amphiphilic carbon dots named C12-SCDs with a cationic surfactant (Dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide, DTAB) and an anionic surfactant (Sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS) were investigated. Results indicated that surfactants DTAB and SDS show a synergistic effect in reducing surface tension with C12-SCDs. The synergistic effect of the DTAB/C12-SCDs mixture is more prominent than the SDS/C12-SCDs mixture, which may result from the electrostatic attraction between DTAB and C12-SCDs. Meanwhile, adding inorganic salts, the surface tension of these mixtures shows a trend of first decreasing slightly and then increasing. The DTAB/C12-SCDs mixture resists strong acids but not alkali environments. However, the surface tension of the SDS/C12-SCDs mixture gradually increases with the increase in pH. In addition, these mixtures have temperature-resistance properties. C12-SCDs and surfactants (DTAB and SDS) also have a synergistic effect in reducing the crude oil-water interfacial tension. Meanwhile, the DTAB/C12-SCDs and SDS/C12-SCDs mixtures have excellent wettability alternation performance. C12-SCDs and surfactants can form a mixed adsorption layer to promote the wettability alternation performance. The depressurization rates of DTAB, SDS, C12-SCDs, DTAB/ C12-SCDs mixture, and SDS/C12-SCDs mixture are 10.42 %, 11.54 %, 22.91 %, 26.32 %, and 24.75 %, respectively. The DTAB/C12-CDs and SDS/C12-CDs mixtures can effectively remove the oil film on the core surface, thus improving the channel of injected water. At the same time, these mixtures can be adsorbed on the surface of the hydrophilic core to form a hydrophobic surface, and the injection of water produces a hydrophobic slip effect. Finally, reducing the surface tension of water can also effectively reduce the injection pressure.