Two aspects are always considered in the design and development of new surfactants for oilfield application. One of them is that surfactant must be sufficiently stable at reservoir temperature and the other is the solubility of the surfactant in the injection water (usually seawater) and the formation brine. Most industrially applied surfactants undergo hydrolysis at elevated temperature and the presence of reservoir ions causes surfactant precipitation. In relevance to this, a novel series of quaternary ammonium gemini surfactants with different length of spacer group (C8, C10, and C12) was synthesized and characterized using FT-IR, ¹³C NMR, ¹H NMR, and MALDI-TOF MS. The gemini surfactants were prepared by solvent-free amidation of glycolic acid ethoxylate lauryl ether with 3-(dimethylamino)-1-propylamine followed by reaction with dibromoalkane to obtain quaternary ammonium gemini surfactants. The gemini surfactants were examined by means of surface properties and thermal stabilities. The synthesized gemini surfactants showed excellent solubility in the formation brine, seawater, and deionized water without any precipitation for up to three months at 90 °C. Thermal gravimetric data revealed that all the gemini surfactants were decomposed above 227 °C, which is higher than the oilfield temperature (≥90 °C). The decrease in critical micelle concentration (CMC) and surface tension at CMC (γ_cmc) was detected by enhancing spacer length in the order C8 ˃ C10 ˃ C12 which suggested that the larger the spacer, the better the surface properties. Moreover, a further decrease in CMC and γ_cmc was noticed by enhancing temperature (30 °C ˃ 60 °C) and salinity (deionized water ˃ seawater). The current study provides a comprehensive investigation of quaternary ammonium gemini surfactants that can be further extended potentially to use as a suitable material for oilfield application.

Application of foam in various upstream operations, such as in enhanced oil recovery, has gained significant attention in recent years. A good foaming agent should generate a stable foam, must be thermally stable (>90 °C, typical reservoir temperature), must have a high tolerance to salinity, and should have low adsorption on the reservoir rock. In view of this, four thermally stable and salt-tolerant polyoxyethylene cationic gemini surfactants were synthesized with different spacers (mono phenyl and biphenyl) and different counterions (Br⁻ and Cl⁻). Foaming properties were evaluated using initial foam generation, foam volume stability at a given time, bubble count, and average foam bubble radius. The effect of counterions and nature of spacers, with and without the presence of salts, on foaming properties was evaluated. It was found that number of phenyl rings (mono phenyl and biphenyl) had no significant effect on foamability and foam stability in the presence or absence of salts. However, the effect of counterions was prominent in deionized water. In deionized water, foam generated by gemini surfactants with bromide as a counterion was more stable compared to the foam generated using the surfactant containing chloride as the counterion. In saline solution, the type of counterion had no effect on the foamability or foam stability of the foam generated using synthesized cationic gemini surfactants. The foam volume stability decreased by the addition of salts; however, a further increase in salt concentration enhanced the foam volume stability. The synthesized surfactants showed good thermal stability, salt tolerance, and foaming properties and can be an attractive choice for upstream applications.