Investigation of different Surfactants on Wettability of Carbonate rocks

Utilization of surfactants is one of the available accesses for wettability alteration of reservoir rock, from oil wet into water wet. So that studying of wettability alteration mechanism using surfactants has been emphasized by recent researchers. In this work, it is focused on presenting a process mechanism which has a direct effect on surfactants behavior in oil field usage, by using of analysis techniques such as Zeta Potential, TGA1, and contact angel measurement. The results haveshown that between useable surfactants, anionic surfactants have the least effect on wettabilityalteration, because of the generated repulsion between the anion of the fatty acid carboxylic group and their anionic part. Where in case of cationic surfactants, because of the appointment of electrostatic attraction and ion-pair formation, zeta potential is changed and surface is tended to water wet. Theseresults are completely coincided with contact angle measurement tests and zeta potential and TGA tests

Keywords:

surfactant , Wettability , zeta potential , contact angel , TGA