Small particles, big impacts: A review of the diverse applications of nanofluids

Abstract

Nanofluids—a simple product of the emerging world of nanotechnology—are suspensions of nanoparticles (nominally 1–100 nm in size) in conventional base fluids such as water, oils, or glycols. Nanofluids have seen enormous growth in popularity since they were proposed by Choi in 1995. In the year 2011 alone, there were nearly 700 research articles where the term nanofluid was used in the title, showing rapid growth from 2006 (175) and 2001 (10). The first decade of nanofluid research was primarily focused on measuring and modeling fundamental thermophysical properties of nanofluids (thermal conductivity, density, viscosity, heat transfer coefficient). Recent research, however, explores the performance of nanofluids in a wide variety of other applications. Analyzing the available body of research to date, this article presents recent trends and future possibilities for nanofluids research and suggests which applications will see the most significant improvement from employing nanofluids.

The thermal conductivity of clustered nanocolloids

“…1,2 This has suggested a remarkably simple way to improve the thermal conductivity of thermal fluids (which is generally low), through the dispersion of small amounts of a dispersed solid. The energy savings that could be achieved by colloidal thermal fluids (nanofluids) has prompted several investigations into their thermal properties, and particularly into the enhancement of the thermal conductivity of the base fluid in the presence of colloidal particles.…”

Thermal Instability in a Layer of Couple Stress Nanofluid Saturated Porous Medium

“…The characteristic feature of nanofluid is the thermal conductivity enhancement, a phenomena observed by Masuda et al [8]. Philip and Shima [9], Keblinski et al [10], Wong and Leon [11], Yu and Xie [12], Taylor et al [13] reported the developments in the study of heat transfer, using nanofluid.…”

Metal Nano Layer Coating for Improving the Detection and Recognition of Micro-Poisons Using Reflection Spectroscopic Measurement

“…Nano particles research has intense scientific interest due to many potential application in versatile fields such as biomedical, optics and electronic fields [19]. One of the interesting technologies regarding the metal nano particles is thin coatings and layers of materials [20].…”