  Nanofluids have the potential to enhance oil recovery through the structural
disjoining pressure, a pressure developed when nanoparticles concentrate at the
three-phase contact line. A model microfluidic porous network is used to
measure the percentage of oil displaced from this channel as the volume
fraction of a Triton X-100 micelle nanofluid is varied from 0 - 30%. The
percentage of oil displaced varies nearly linearly with micellar nanoparticle
volume fraction starting with 39% using deionized water and 89% using a volume
fraction of 30%. While the trend is clear, significant variability between
experiments was observed for a fixed nanofluid volume fraction. This indicates
that surface energy heterogeneity is important for the nanofluid oil
displacement performance.
