NANO-PARTICLE DETECTION OF CHEMICAL TRACE AMOUNTS IN DOWNHOLE NMR FLUID ANALYZER

摘要

An apparatus for detecting a chemical of interest in a fluid sample includes a sample chamber and a nano-particle injection device configured to inject functionalized magnetic nano-particles and optionally non-functionalized magnetic nano-particles into the fluid sample. The functionalized magnetic nano-particles include a plurality of bits of a reactor chemical spread out and separated from each other over a surface of each of the functionalized magnetic nano-particles for at least one of aggregating and disaggregating the functionalized magnetic nano-particles by binding or reacting to the chemical of interest in the fluid sample and the non-functionalized magnetic nano-particles do not include the plurality of bits. The apparatus also includes a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) instrument configured to perform an NMR measurement on the fluid sample having the functionalized magnetic nano-particles to provide first NMR data and a controller configured to detect the chemical of interest using the first NMR data.