Experimental investigation on thermo-physical properties of copper/diethylene glycol nanofluids fabricated via microwave-assisted route

This study investigates the fabrication, thermal conductivity and rheological characteristics evaluation of nanofluids consisting of copper nanoparticles in diethylene glycol base liquid. The fabricated Cu nanofluids displayed enhanced thermal conductivity over the base liquid. Copper nanoparticles were directly formed in diethylene glycol using microwave-assisted heating, which provides uniform heating of reagents and solvent, accelerating the nucleation of metal clusters, resulting in monodispersed nanostructures. Copper nanoparticles displayed an average primary particle size of 75 ± 25 nm from SEM micrographs, yet aggregated to form large spherical particles of about 300 nm. The physicochemical properties including thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanofluids were measured for the nanofluids with nanoparticle concentration between 0.4 wt% and 1.6 in the temperature range of 20–50 °C. Proper theoretical correlations/models were applied to compare the experimental results with the estimated values for thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanofluids. For all cases, thermal conductivity enhancement was higher than the increase in viscosity showing the potential of nanofluids to be utilized as coolant in heat transfer applications. A thermal conductivity enhancement of ∼7.2% was obtained for nanofluids with 1.6 wt% nanoparticles while maximum increase in viscosity of ∼5.2% was observed for the same nanofluid.