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US 10,480,281 B2Granted
Nanoparticle-based shear-thickening materials
AssigneesSaudi Arabian Oil Company, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsAbeer Mohammad Saleh Al-Olayan, Alfredo Alexander-Katz, Jason R. Cox
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Abstract
A composition includes an aqueous colloidal dispersion of a nanomaterial. The nanomaterial includes, disposed on a surface of the nanomaterial, a first coupling agent including silane and a functional group including an amino acid. The nanomaterial includes, disposed on the surface of the nanomaterial, a second coupling agent including silane and a polymer with a molecular weight between 1,000 and 20,000.
Claims5
A method comprising:
- introducing an aqueous colloidal dispersion to a subterranean zone, wherein the aqueous colloidal dispersion is a shear thickening material, and the aqueous colloidal dispersion comprises a plurality of silica nanoparticles, each of the plurality of silica nanoparticles comprising:
- a first coupling agent disposed on a surface of the silica nanoparticle, the first coupling agent comprising silane and a functional group comprising an amino acid;
- and
- a second coupling agent disposed on the surface of the silica nanoparticle, the second coupling agent comprising silane and a polymer with a molecular weight between 1,000 and 20,000;
- and
- applying shear to the aqueous colloidal dispersion, thereby causing (i) the second coupling agent on each of the silica nanoparticles to collapse and (ii) the first coupling agent on each of the silica nanoparticles to bond with the first coupling agent on the neighboring silica nanoparticles, resulting in an increase in a viscosity of the aqueous colloidal dispersion.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.