Molecular dynamics simulation of the synergistic effect of a compound
surfactant on the stability of CO2 oil-based foam
Abstract
It is of great significance to study the stability of foams in the
petroleum industry. Therefore, the stability mechanism of Span 20, the
fluorinated surfactant FCO-80 and their compound system FS in a
CO2 oil-based foam system was studied by molecular
simulation. The sandwich model of CO2 oil-based foam was
constructed to reveal the stability of the foam system from the
microscopic perspective. The result shows that the
oil-CO2 distance of the FS foam system is 16.087 Å, and
the coordination number of oil molecules is 2.65. The diffusion
coefficient of CO2 in the FS foam system is
3.94×10-6 cm2/s. This shows that
under the synergistic effect of Span 20 and FCO-80, the diffusion
coefficients of CO2 molecules are small, and the surface
tension is reduced, which can improve the stability of foam. The results
can supplement previous experimental results on the stability of
oil-based foam.