The effect of carbon nanotubes on the physical properties of a binary nanofluid

The objective of this paper is to examine the effect of nanoparticles on the physical properties of a binary nanofluid by experiment. A carbon nanotubes–ammonia nanofluid (the binary nanofluid) was prepared without any surfactants. And the thermal conductivity, surface tension and kinetic viscosity of the binary nanofluid were measured experimentally. The effects of the mass fraction of carbon nanotubes, the concentration of ammonia and temperature on the physical properties of the binary nanofluid were systematically studied. The results showed that the CNTs–ammonia binary nanofluid had remarkably higher effective thermal conductivities than the base fluid, but hardly higher surface tension and kinetic viscosity. Finally, the correlation of the effective thermal conductivity of the binary nanofluid was made using the models in the literatures.