Abstract

In the present work, ethylene glycol-based (EG) copper oxide nanofluids were synthesized by pulsed wire evaporation method. In order to explode the pure copper wire, high voltage of 23 kV was applied to the both ends of wire and argon/oxygen gas mixture was used as reactant gas. EG-based copper oxide nanofluids with different volume fraction were prepared by controlling explosion number of copper wire. From the transmission electron microscope (TEM) image, it was found that the copper oxide nanoparticles exhibited an average diameter about 100 nm with the oxide layer of 2~3 nm. The synthesized copper oxide consists of CuO/Cu_2O phases and the Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) surface area was estimated to be 6.86;m2;g-1. From the analyses of thermal properties, it is suggested that viscosity and thermal conductivity of EG-based copper oxide nanofluids do not show temperature-dependent behavior over the range of 20 to 90°C. On the other hand, the viscosity and thermal conductivity of EG-based copper oxide nanofluids increase with volume fraction due to the active Brownian motion of the nanoparticles, i.e., nanoconvection.

• Keywords: Nanofluid;Pulsed wire evaporation;Copper oxide;Thermal conductivity;Viscosity;