Professor William Uspal awarded funding from the ACS Petroleum Research Fund to study catalytically active colloidal suspensions

Catalytically active colloidal particles are frequently encountered in petroleum-related technological and natural settings. Intrinsically, these particles create, in the surrounding solution, spatial gradients of the concentrations of the various molecular species involved in the catalytic reaction. Typically, dissolved molecules interact with the surface of suspended particles through molecular forces, such as van der Waals or electrostatic forces. In a phenomenon called “phoresis,” the combination of chemical gradients and molecular forces can lead to mechanical motion of the particles and of the suspending fluid. As a result, a catalytically active suspension can potentially exhibit novel material properties, such as vanishing viscosity or directed motion of the particles.

The aim of Professor Uspal’s project is to understand how suspensions of catalytically active particles behave in the complex environmental conditions characteristic of petroleum reservoirs and petroleum-related processes. For instance, within a petroleum reservoir, a catalytic suspension will be confined within porous rock and exposed to salinity gradients. As another example, a drilling fluid containing catalytic particles will experience strong fluid flows near by the drill bit. Professors Uspal’s team will use computer modeling to understand the microscopic behavior of catalytic particles under these conditions, and, on the basis of the microscopic behavior, predict macroscopic material properties like viscosity. The results of this research will contribute to the fundamental understanding of “active fluids,” and potentially enhance the performance and efficiency of petroleum-related industrial processes.