Colloidal suspensions of nanoparticles have been suggested for a wide range of applications in enhanced oil recovery, oil sands processing, hydraulic fracturing, and formation damage remediation. For the majority of oilfield applications the nanoparticles must be functionalized to maintain colloidal stability while exhibiting affinity or repulsion to rock surfaces, oil droplets, or fines. Conventional functionalization of nanoparticles with alkoxysilanes and chlorosilanes is limited by the requirement of multiple hours to fully saturate the surface and release by-products upon reaction completion. Monolayer deposition with a high density of functional groups represents a particularly difficult challenge.<br/>Our ongoing studies indicate that application of cyclic azasilanes that have a strained ring structure with adjacent Si and N centers provides highly efficient functionalization of hydroxylated silica, alumina, magnetite, and diamond nanoparticles which is catalyst-free and by-product-free. The data on synthesis and characterization of functionalized nanoparticles as well as possible reaction mechanism of functionalization will be discussed.<br/>

Functionalization of hydroxylated nanoparticles with cyclic azasilanes: Experimental and computational studies

251st National Meeting (2016)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.