Promoting Activity of Gemini Ionic Liquids Surfactant at the Interface of Crude Oil-water

During recent years, Gemini ionic liquids (ILs), as a new type of surfactants, have gained much attention due to their significant interfacial activity. Accordingly, use of these materials to reduce crude oil-water interfacial tension (IFT) and to enhance oil recovery is much advantageous. In this study, effects of concentration, temperature and pH on the crude oil-water IFT in the presence of Gemini IL surfactants were investigated. For this aim, alkyl chain length imidazolium based gemini ILs of [C4im-C4-imC4][Br2] and [C8im-C4-imC8][Br2] were synthesized and used. By measuring IFT of the system, under different conditions, the corresponding variations were considered. Results revealed the strong effect of alkyl chain length and concentration on the IFT, leading to, respectively, 72.5 and 97.5% reductions under critical micelle concentrations and temperature of 298.2 K. The Gemini IL surfactants were stable at high temperatures and under a wide range of pH, and that their performance was significantly promoted with these factors. In theoretical investigation, it was revealed that the experimental data were nicely consistent with the Frumkin adsorption isotherm and the obtained parameters with reasonable variations.