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Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes for heat transfer applications

Enhancement of conduction and convection properties of water/N-CNT nanofluid

A Correction to this article was published on 05 September 2020

This article has been updated

Abstract

In this research, it is aimed to enhance the heat transfer properties of the carbon nanotubes through nitrogen doping. To this end, nitrogen-doped multiwall carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs) were synthesized via chemical vapor deposition method. For supplying carbon and nitrogen during the synthesis of N-CNTs, camphor and urea were used, respectively, at 1000 °C over Co–Mo/MgO nanocatalyst in a hydrogen atmosphere. N-CNTs with three different nitrogen loadings of 0.56, 0.98, and 1.38 mass% were synthesized, after which, water/N-CNT nanofluids of these three samples with concentrations of 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5 mass% were prepared. To obtain a stable nanofluid, N-CNTs were functionalized by nitric acid followed by stabilizing in water by employing the ultrasonic bath. Investigation on the stability of the samples showed a high stability level for the prepared water/N-CNT nanofluids in which the zeta potential of − 43.5 mV was obtained for the best sample. Also for studying the heat transfer properties, the thermal conductivity in the range of 0.1–0.5 mass% and convection heat transfer coefficients of nanofluids in the range of 0.1–0.5 mass%, and Reynolds number in the range of 4000–9000 were evaluated. The results showed 32.7% enhancement of the convection heat transfer coefficients at Reynolds number of 8676 and 27% increase in the thermal conductivity at 0.5 mass% and 30 °C.

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Change history

  • 05 September 2020

    In the original publication of the article, the first author���s affiliation was incorrectly published.

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Correspondence to Alimorad Rashidi.

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Bazmi, M., Askari, S., Ghasemy, E. et al. Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes for heat transfer applications. J Therm Anal Calorim 138, 69–79 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-019-08024-y

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Keywords

  • Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes
  • Nanofluid
  • Rheological properties
  • Thermal conductivity
  • Heat transfer