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Comparative evaluation on the thermal properties and stability of MWCNT nanofluid with conventional surfactants and ionic liquid

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Abstract

Conventional surfactants such as CTAB (cetrimonium bromide), SDS (sodium dodecyl sulphate), SDBS (sodium dodecyl sulphonate) are combined with nanofluids to improve the stability and thermal conductivity of nanofluids. These nanofluids are mainly used for heat transfer applications where heating and cooling are usual courses of action which result in surfactants producing foams and polluting the heat transfer media, affecting the total system performance. Besides, the common surfactant molecules that augment the thermal resistance between the nanoparticles and base fluid also affect the thermophysical properties of the nanofluid. In this paper, [Bmim][Cl] (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride), a high purity ionic liquid (IL) with higher thermal stability was used to provide a comparative study on the stability and thermal properties with that of the conventional surfactants (CTAB, SDS, SDBS) on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT)/propylene glycol (PG) nanofluid. The transient hot-wire based KD2-Pro and zeta potential results demonstrated that the inclusion of ionic liquid improved the thermal conductivity and stability of the formulated nanofluid. However, much like the conventional surfactants, the strong electrostatic repulsive force created by the ionic liquid was found to decrease when the temperature is increased. The outcome demonstrated the most extreme thermal conductivity upgrade of 33.7% at 303 K and maximum dispersion stability of more than one month without any aggregation for the nanofluid containing ionic liquid.

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Abbreviations

Al2O3 :

Aluminium oxide

Au:

Gold

BmimCl:

1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride

CTAB:

Cetrimonium bromide

EDX:

Energy-dispersive X-ray

FESEM:

Field emission scanning electron microscope

OD:

Outer diameter of MWCNTs

FTIR:

Fourier transform infrared spectroscope

h :

Heat transfer coefficient (W m−2 K−1)

IL:

Ionic liquid

INF:

Nanofluid containing ionic liquid

k :

Thermal conductivity (W m−2 K−1)

LiNO3 :

Lithium nitrate

MWCNT:

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes

PG:

Propylene glycol

S1:

MWCNT + PG + SDS

S2:

MWCNT + PG + SDBS

S3:

MWCNT + PG + CTAB

S4:

MWCNT + PG + IL

SDBS:

Sodium dodecyl benzene sulphonate

SDS:

Sodium dodecyl sulphate

T :

Temperature (K)

mass:

M (gram)

ID:

Inner diameter of MWCNTs

μ :

Dynamic viscosity (kg m−1 s−1)

ρ :

Density (kg m−3)

Ø :

Mass concentration (%)

Cp:

Specific heat capacity (kJ kg−1 K−1)

nf:

Nanofluid

np:

Nanoparticle

bf:

Base fluid

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Acknowledgements

We thank Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) for their financial assistance through YUTP grant (Grant no. 015LC0-118). The authors were also grateful to CORIL (Centre of Research in Ionic Liquids), UTP for their adequate support on analysing the samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia

    Balaji Bakthavatchalam & Khairul Habib

  2. Department of Fundamental and Applied Science, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia

    Cecilia D. Wilfred

  3. Research Centre for Nano-Materials and Energy Technology (RCNMET), School of Science and Technology, Sunway University, Subang Jaya, Malaysia

    R. Saidur

  4. International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan

    Bidyut Baran Saha

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  1. Balaji Bakthavatchalam
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Correspondence to Khairul Habib.

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Bakthavatchalam, B., Habib, K., Wilfred, C.D. et al. Comparative evaluation on the thermal properties and stability of MWCNT nanofluid with conventional surfactants and ionic liquid. J Therm Anal Calorim 147, 393–408 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-10374-x

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