THE EFFECT OF SURFACTANT ON STABILITY AND THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF CARBON NANOTUBE BASED NANOFLUIDS

Abstract

The addition of highly conductive substance such as carbon nanotubes into a traditional heat transfer fluid will enhance the fluids' thermal conductivity. However, dispersion process of carbon nanotubes into base fluids is not an easy task due to hydrophobic characteristic of its surface. This study attempts to investigate the stability and thermal conductivity of carbon nanotube based ethylene glycol/water nanofluids with and without surfactants. Stability investigation was conducted through observation and zeta potential measurement methods. As for the thermal conductivity, the samples were measured based on transient line heat source. The results showed that 0.01 wt.% of carbon nanotube based nanofluid, containing 0.01wt.% hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide possess highest zeta potential value compared to the other tested samples. 0.5 wt. % of carbon nanotube based nanofluids with gum arabic exhibit 25.7% thermal conductivity enhancement.

Keywords

Dates

  • Submission Date2013-09-14
  • Revision Date2014-05-13
  • Acceptance Date2014-05-27
  • Online Date2014-07-06

DOI Reference

10.2298/TSCI130914078L

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