Effect of stabilizer on dynamic thermal transport property of ZnO nanofluid

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the effect of adding a stabilizer on the dynamic thermal properties of ZnO nanofluid (containing 5 to 10 nm diameter of ZnO nanocrystals) measured using a 3ω method. Addition of the stabilizer leads to the stabilization of the nanofluid and also substantial reduction of the enhancement of thermal transport compared to that seen in the bare ZnO nanofluid. This also alters the frequency dependence of the thermal transport and the characteristic time scale associated with it. It is suggested that the addition of the stabilizer inhibits the thermodiffusion-assisted local aggregation thus leading to substantial reduction of the enhancement of thermal transport properties of the bare nanofluid as proposed in some recent models, and this also alters the characteristic time scales by altering the scale of aggregation. © 2013 Neogy and Raychaudhuri; licensee Springer.