Allotropic transformation instigated thermal diffusivity of soot nanofluid: Thermal lens study

Abstract

This paper employs the sensitive single-beam thermal lens technique for analyzing the thermal behavior of gasoline soot containing allotropes of carbon by preparing its nanofluid (NF). The soot, annealed at different temperatures up to 400 °C (the samples), used for preparing the NF, is found to enhance the thermal diffusivity (α) up to 95% without changing the solid volume fraction, suggesting its possible use in coolants. The thermal induced modifications are understood from the field emission scanning electron microscopic, X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric, and Raman spectroscopic analyses. The variation of α of the sample is found to exhibit similar variations observed in XRD and Raman spectroscopic analyses. The study stresses the significance of the optimum temperature (300 °C) for the soot NF above which morphological and structural modifications may lead to thermal energy trapping rather than dissipation or cooling.