Patent ID: 11879091
Assignee: UTI INC.
Field: Basic materials chemistry (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC C  B | IPC B  C

Claim 0:
1. A method of emplacing a gel-form material in a porous subterranean formation, comprising:
admixing solid nanoparticles with an anionic species and a cationic species in an aqueous media to provide a particle-loaded aqueous media having a nanoparticle:ion ratio, wherein the anionic and cationic species are members of an ionic liquid species pair in 1:1 molar ratio;
admixing an organic solvent with the particle-loaded aqueous media so as to produce an initial emulsion having a liquid state; and
emplacing the initial emulsion in the porous subterranean formation in the liquid state to form an emplaced emulsion, wherein the emplaced emulsion undergoes a transition to a gel state in situ in the subterranean formation, to form the gel-form material;
wherein the nanoparticle:ion ratio is selected so as to provide a zeta potential greater than zero in the particle-loaded aqueous media and thereby determine a gelation time during which the emplaced emulsion transitions from the liquid state to the gel state.