Investigation into the Size Distribution of Al₂O₃- ZnO Nanoparticles Dispersed in DI Water and Following the Impact of CNTs on the Stability, Heat Transfer, and Electricity Transfer of Al₂O₃- ZnO-CNT Hybrid Nanofluid

Abstract

The stability of dispersed nanoparticles in the base fluid has always been one of the most important challenges in using nanofluids as a coolant in heat transfer applications in different industries such as modern electronic equipment, heat exchangers, solar technologies, etc. In the present study, the dynamic light scattering (DLS) method is used to obtain the particle size distribution of Al2O3-ZnO dispersed in DI water. After adjusting the optical arrangement and designing the DLS setup, the correlation curves are plotted by analyzing the detected signals of the experiments. Then, a decay rate is derived by fitting an exponential function to the correlation curve to get the particle size distribution by using the Stoke-Einstein equation. In order to investigate the stability of Al2O3-ZnO water-based nanofluid, the particle size distribution profiles are studied several times. In addition, the stability of Al2O3-ZnO-CNT hybrid nanofluid is followed by absorbance measurements using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Moreover, the thermal conductivity coefficient and electrical conductivity of the Al2O3-ZnO hybrid nanofluid with and without CNT particles are determined by utilizing KD2 Pro and PCT-407 devices, respectively. The results showed that the peak in the particle size distribution curve for Al2O3-ZnO hybrid nanofluid shifted from 476 nm to 128 nm after 5 days. Furthermore, the inclusion of carbon nanotubes increased the stability of zinc oxide particles in the nanofluid. In addition, by adding carbon nanotubes in a ratio of 1:1:0.5 to Al2O3-ZnO nanofluid and forming 0.05 wt.% hybrid nanofluid, the thermal conductivity coefficient was enhanced by 30% in comparison with deionized water, while a 0.05 wt.% hybrid nanofluid without CNT particles improved the thermal conductivity by 19%. Although the electrical conductivity increased by adding nanoparticles to the base fluid, it didn’t change significantly for nanofluids containing CNTs compared to nanofluids without CNT particles.