Synthesis, Characterization and Thermal Studies of Composite Nanofluids and their Comparison with Hybrid Nanofluids

Abstract

Ternary nanofluids can either be an admixture of three distinct nanoparticles or the dispersion of a ternary nanocomposite in a base fluid. This work focuses on the synthesis, morphological characterization, stability analysis, estimation and optimization of thermophysical parameters of ternary nanofluids consisting of multiwalled carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide and silver (CNT-GO-Ag). Two cases are considered and compared viz. (i) hybrid nanofluids (HNF) prepared from monofluids and (ii) composite nanofluids (CNF) prepared by the dispersion of ternary nanocomposites. The CNF was found to have an enhanced thermal conductivity ratio (knf/kb) of 40% as compared to 30% for HNF at 30 ºC. This enhancement for the CNF and HNF were found to be 45% and 32%, respectively at the electronic cooling exposure temperature of ~40 to 50 ºC. The zeta potential analysis also proved that CNF had superior suspension stability than HNF. The viscosity of CNF was found to be 8% (at 20 ºC) to 20% (at 80 ºC) lower than HNF, much desired for fluid flow characteristics. Overall, the results show that CNF as compared to HNF possesses superior thermophysical properties with good potential for application in electronic cooling studies.