Rheological Behaviors of Nanofluids Containing Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube

Abstract

Stable nanofluids containing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) treated by concentrated acid and mechanical mill technology have been prepared. Water, ethylene glycol, glycerol, and silicone oil were used as base fluids. The rheological behaviors of the obtained nanofluids with different MWNT volume fractions and at different temperatures were investigated in details. The glycerol based and silicone oil based fluids behave Newtonian manner in all studied MWNT volume fractions and temperatures. The dispersant hexamethyldisiloxane added in silicone oil decreases the silicone oil viscosity but has no effect on the rheological properties of nanofluids. For the water based nanofluids, MWNTs act as lubricative function when the MWNT volume fraction is lower. Furthermore, for the ethylene glycol based and glycerol based fluid, almost no viscosity augmentation appears when the temperature is higher than 55°C.

Keywords:

• Multi-walled carbon nanotube
• nanofluid
• rheology
• viscosity

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of China, National Science Foundation of China (50876058), Research supported by the Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning, and Innovation Program of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (09YZ447).