Molecular dynamics simulation of the synergistic effect of a compound surfactant on the stability of <scp>CO<sub>2</sub></scp> oil‐based foam
Zhoujie Wang, Songyan Li, Songyan Li, Shaopeng Li, Shaopeng Li, Jianzhong Zhu, Heng Yang
Abstract
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 mixture FS in a CO 2 oil‐based foam system were studied by molecular simulation. The sandwich model of CO 2 oil‐based foam was constructed to reveal the stability of the foam system from the microscopic perspective. The result shows that under the synergistic effect of Span 20 and FCO‐80, the oil–CO 2 distance of the FS foam system and the coordination number of oil molecules are larger than those of Span 20 and FCO‐80 foam system. In FS foam system, the diffusion coefficients of CO 2 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.