Temperature-dependent thermal conductivity and viscosity of synthesized α-alumina nanofluids

Abstract

In the present work, we focused on the thermal conductivity and viscosity of the synthesis as well as characterize metal oxide α-Al2O3 nanoparticles suspended in distilled water:ethylene glycol (60:40) ratio based stable colloidal nanofluid. The band gap of the α-Al2O3 with and without surfactant is 4.42 and 4.59 eV, respectively. The results show that nanoparticle with polyvinyl alcohol surfactant has smaller crystalline size (~23 nm) than without surfactant (~36 nm). The synthesized nanofluids have good stability after 15 days of synthesis which is characterized by zeta potential analyzer. Thermal conductivity and viscosity are measured for 0.1 and 0.5 wt% concentration of alumina for with and without surfactant. The concentration of particles and added surfactant are responsible for stable fluid, thermal conductivity enhancement, and viscosity of nanofluid with respect to temperature. Therefore, the novel combinations of characterized properties of α-Al2O3 nanofluid has proved to be the best thermally stable heat transfer fluid compared to conventional cooling fluids.