A Feasibility Study on Enhanced Oil Recovery of Modified Janus Nano Calcium Carbonate-Assisted Alkyl Polyglycoside to Form Nanofluids in Emulsification Flooding.

Emulsification flooding can effectively enhance crude oil recovery to solve the problem of petroleum shortage. In this work, a modified Janus Nano Calcium carbonate (JNC-12) with a particle size of 30-150 nm was synthesized, and an in situ emulsification nanofluid (ISEN) was prepared with JNC-12 and alkyl polyglycoside (APG). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed that the dispersion of JNC-12 in air or APG solution was better than Nano Calcium carbonate (Nano CaCO3). The emulsification properties, interfacial tension, and expansion modulus of ISEN were studied, and the result showed that with the increase in salinity, the emulsification rate decreased, the water yield rate increased, the interfacial tension first decreased and then increased, and the expansion modulus first increased and then decreased. With the increase in temperature, the emulsification rate, emulsion viscosity, and interfacial tension decreased. With the increased oil-water volume, the water yield rate and the emulsion viscosity increased. With increase in the concentration of JNC-12, the water yield rate, the emulsion viscosity, and the interfacial tension decreased but the expansion modulus increased. The emulsion generated by emulsifying ISEN with crude oil was an O/W emulsion, the crude oil viscosity was 4-10 times that of emulsion, and the average particle size of emulsion was 1.107 µm. The addition of ISEN caused the decrease in interfacial tension of oil-water to 0.01-0.1 mN/m. The wettability alteration experiment found that ISEN could change the lipophilic rock to hydrophilic rock. Finally, the core displacement experiments showed that compared with the first water flooding, the oil recovery of the second water flooding after ISEN flooding enhanced by 17.6%. This research has important guiding significance for in situ emulsified nanofluid flooding to enhance oil recovery.

Mackinawite nanozymes as reactive oxygen species scavengers for acute kidney injury alleviation.

BACKGROUND: Iron sulfide nanomaterials have been successfully employed as therapeutic agents for bacterial infection therapy and catalytic-ferroptosis synergistic tumor therapy due to their unique structures, physiochemical properties, and biocompatibility. However, biomedical research and understanding of the biological functions of iron sulfides are insufficient, and how iron sulfide nanomaterials affect reactive oxygen species (ROS) in diseases remains unknown. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with high levels of ROS, and therefore nanomedicine-mediated antioxidant therapy has emerged as a novel strategy for its alleviation. RESULTS: Here, mackinawite nanozymes were synthesized from glutathione (GSH) and iron ions (Fe3+) (denoted as GFeSNs) using a hydrothermal method, and then evaluated as ROS scavengers for ROS-related AKI treatment. GFeSNs showed broad-spectrum ROS scavenging ability through synergistic interactions of multiple enzymes-like and hydrogen polysulfide-releasing properties. Furthermore, both in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated that GFeSNs exhibited outstanding cytoprotective effects against ROS-induced damage at extremely low doses and significantly improved treatment outcomes in AKI. CONCLUSIONS: Given the synergetic antioxidant properties and high biocompatibility, GFeSNs exhibit great potential for the treatment of AKI and other ROS-associated diseases.