Production and dispersion stability of nanoparticles in nanofluids

This paper presents an experimental study on the homogeneous dispersion of nanoparticles in nanofluids. In this study, various physical treatment techniques based on two-step method, including stirrer, ultrasonic bath, ultrasonic disruptor, and high-pressure homogenizer were systematically tested to verify their versatility for preparing stable nanofluids. Initially carbon black and silver nanoparticles dispersed in base fluids with the presence of surfactant were found to be highly agglomerated with the hydrodynamic diameter of 330 nm to 585 nm, respectively. After both CB and Ag nanofluids were treated by various two-step methods, stirrer, ultrasonic bath, and ultrasonic disrupter was found to do a poor performance in deagglomeration process for the initial particle clusters. However, the high-pressure homogenizer produced the average diameter of the CB and Ag particles of 45 nm and 35 nm, respectively, indicating that among various physical treatment techniques employed in this study, the high-pressure homogenizer was the most effective method to break down the agglomerated nanoparticles suspended in base fluids. In order to prepare another nanofluid with much smaller primary nanoparticles, we also employed a modified magnetron sputtering system, in which the sputtered nanoparticles were designed to directly mix with the running surfactant-added silicon oil thin film formed on a rolling drum (i.e. one-step method). We observed that Ag nanoparticles produced by the modified magnetron sputtering system were homogeneously dispersed and long-term stable in the silicon oil-based fluid, and the average diameter of Ag nanoparticles was found to be ~ 3 nm, indicating that the modified magnetron sputtering system is also an effective one-step method to prepare stable nanofluids.