Foam optimization evaluation for enhanced oil recovery based on hydrophilic SiO2/SDS dispersions

The foam instability is still a question to enhance oil recovery. In this work, the modification process of the SiO 2 nanoparticles by kH-570 was described and the models of SDS and SiO 2 nanoparticles at the gas–liquid interface established were aimed to verify the mechanism of SiO 2 nanoparticles on foam stability. The results showed that the foam performance of the hydrophilic SiO 2 /SDS dispersion was better than that of SiO 2 /SDS dispersion depending on desorption energy and maximum capillary pressure of SiO 2 nanoparticles at the gas–liquid interface.   Finally, the oil recovery (45.25%) by using hydrophilic SiO 2 /SDS dispersion at 2.0% modified SiO 2  + 0.4% SDS.