Thermal Transport Properties of Nanofluids Containing Carbon Nanotubes

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been treated by using a mechanochemical reaction method to enhance their dispersibility for producing CNT nanofluids. The thermal conductivity was measured by a short hot wire technique and the viscosity was measured by a rotary viscometer. The thermal conductivity enhancement reaches up to 17.5% at a volume fraction of 0.01 for an ethylene glycol based nanofluid. Temperature variation was shown to have no obvious effects on the thermal conductivity enhancement for the as prepared nanofluids. With an increase in the thermal conductivity of the base fluid, the thermal conductivity enhancement of a nanofluid decreases. At low volume fractions (<0.4 Vol%), nanofluids have lower viscosity than the corresponding base fluid due to lubricative effect of nanoparticles. When the volume fraction is higher than 0.4 Vol%, the viscosity increases with nanoparticle loadings. The prepared nanofluids, with no contamination to medium, good fluidity, stability, and high thermal conductivity, would have potential applications as coolants in advanced thermal systems.