Oil Encapsulation Advantages of Amphiphilic Polymer-Grafted Silica Nanoparticle Systems

Amphiphilic-grafted nanoparticles (AGNs) composed of silica (SiO2) nanoparticle core and grafted poly(caprolactone)-block-poly[oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl methacrylate] (PCL-b-POEGMA) copolymer were previously reported in the literature with promising oil encapsulation properties. This report serves as an expansion upon that work, where crude oil uptake is thoroughly investigated through ultraviolet light absorption (UV) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The effects of stirring speed and crude oil viscosity are also investigated to determine whether the AGNs follow a diffusion-based mechanism. Polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) encapsulation from UV measurements suggests that these prototype AGNs approximately encapsulate their weight in crude oil and do not have a critical micelle concentration.