Nano Express
Round-robin test on thermal conductivity measurement of ZnO nanofluids and comparison of experimental results with theoretical bounds
1 Energy Efficiency and Materials Convergence Research Division, Korea Institute of Energy Research, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
2 Nuclear Materials Research Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Republic of Korea
4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea
5 School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Korea Aerospace University, Republic of Korea
6 Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Nanoscale Research Letters 2011, 6:258 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-6-258
Published: 25 March 2011Abstract
Ethylene glycol (EG)-based zinc oxide (ZnO) nanofluids containing no surfactant have been manufactured by one-step pulsed wire evaporation (PWE) method. Round-robin tests on thermal conductivity measurements of three samples of EG-based ZnO nanofluids have been conducted by five participating labs, four using accurate measurement apparatuses developed in house and one using a commercial device. The results have been compared with several theoretical bounds on the effective thermal conductivity of heterogeneous systems. This study convincingly demonstrates that the large enhancements in the thermal conductivities of EG-based ZnO nanofluids tested are beyond the lower and upper bounds calculated using the models of the Maxwell and Nan et al. with and without the interfacial thermal resistance.
