Doped CeO₂/water nanofluids analyzed the performance of thermal conductivity and heat transfer: An experimental and theoretical investigations

Abstract

A combined experimental and theoretical study on thermal conductivity, heat transfer specific heat, and electronic properties has been done for doped CeO2/water nanofluid. First, the sol-gel method was implemented for the synthesis of doped CeO2 nanoparticles and then a mixture of nanoparticles with different concentrations of nanofluid. X-ray diffraction and SEM analysis confirm the structural phase purity and homogeneous mixing of nanofluids. Experimental thermal conductivity and specific heat of pure and 4f-doped CeO2 were estimated and found very close to our theoretical calculations. Experimental investigations have been carried out for the measurement of heat transfer using pure and doped CeO2/water nanofluid as the coolant. The experiments were aimed at determining the heat transfer and other thermal properties with different concentrations and with various fluid with Reynolds number 2500 and 3500. The heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids increases not only with an increase in the volume flow rate of the hot water but also increases with increase in the atomic number of dopant elements in CeO2. Electronic states show variation in band gap with doping which may also play an important role in the improvement of solar collectors. It is clear from experimental and theoretical findings that the thermal and electronic properties depend on number of valance electrons. Hence doping of 4f-element in CeO2 plays a vital role to increase the thermal conductivity and tuning of electronic properties leads to many applications in thermal sensors and solar cell-based industries.