Influence of temperature and pressure on quartz-water-CO₂ contact angle and CO₂-water interfacial tension.

We measured water-CO2 contact angles on a smooth quartz surface (RMS surface roughness ∼40 nm) as a function of pressure and temperature. The advancing water contact angle θ was 0° at 0.1 MPa CO2 pressure and all temperatures tested (296-343 K); θ increased significantly with increasing pressure and temperature (θ=35° at 296 K and θ=56° at 343 K at 20 MPa). A larger θ implies less structural and residual trapping and thus lower CO2 storage capacities at higher pressures and temperatures. Furthermore we did not identify any significant influence of CO2-water equilibration on θ. Moreover, we measured the CO2-water interfacial tension γ and found that γ strongly decreased with increasing pressure up to ∼10 MPa, and then decreased with a smaller slope with further increasing pressure. γ also increased with increasing temperature.