Ti3C2Tx MXene nanofluids with enhanced thermal conductivity

Abstract

Recent advances in nanotechnology have led researchers to investigate various approaches to the development of nanofluids with enhanced thermal conductivities that can replace conventional industrial coolants. Of particular interest have been MXene based nanofluids. The current investigation focuses on MXene/water and MXene/ethylene-glycol/water nanofluids with particle concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 wt% of MXene. The results of this investigation found as much as a 30.6% improvement in the effective thermal conductivity of the 0.5 wt% MXene/water nanofluid compared to the pure water base fluid. In addition, an improvement of 27.3% in the effective thermal conductivity was observed in MXene/ethylene-glycol/water nanofluid. MXene was found to provide superior enhancement in the effective thermal conductivity when compared with other particles, such as metal, metal oxide, and graphene, both in DI water and in ethylene glycol. In addition, MXene did not significantly increase the viscosity as is typically the case for other nanosuspensions containing carbon nano materials, e.g. nanotubes, graphene. The physical properties indicated that MXene based nanofluids present a number of very attractive thermophysical properties for application as industrial coolants.