Fabrication and thermo-physical properties characterization of ethylene glycol-MoS2 heat exchange fluids

This study reports on the fabrication and thermo-physical properties evaluation of ethylene glycol (EG) based heat exchange fluids containing molybdenum disulfide nanoparticles (MoS2 NPs) and micrometer sized particles (MPs). For this purpose, MoS2 NPs and MPs (with average size of 90 nm and 1.2 μm; respectively) were dispersed and stabilized in EG with particle loading of 0.25, 0.5, 1 wt%. To study the real effect of MoS2 NP/MP the use of surfactants was avoided and ultrasonic agitation was used for dispersion and preparation of stable MoS2 NFs/MFs. The objectives were investigation of impact of MoS2 particle size (including NP/MP) and particle loading on thermo-physical properties of EG based MoS2 NFs/MFs including thermal conductivity (TC) and viscosity of NFs/MFs at 20 °C. All suspensions (NFs/MFs) exhibited a higher TC than the EG as base liquid and NFs showed higher TC enhancement values than the MFs. A TC enhancement of 16.4% was observed for NFs containing 1 wt% MoS2 NPs while the maximum increase in viscosity of 9.7% was obtained for the same NF at 20 °C. It indicates this NF system may have some potential to be utilized in heat transfer applications.