Reactive molecular dynamics simulation of thermo-physicochemical properties of non-covalent functionalized graphene nanofluids

In this paper, the effect of adding sodium dodecyl benzenesulfonate(SDBS), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and triton X-100 on the thermophysical properties and the stability of water/ethylene glycol- graphene (G)- nanofluids (NFs) was investigated. Final observations demonstrate that the viscosity of NFs with 0.036 wt% of surfactants in comparison with 0.013 wt% NFs improved by 6.29%, 79.36%, and 39.13% for triton X-100, SDS, and SDBS, respectively. In addition, by increasing the fraction of SDS surfactant from 0.036 to 0.051 wt% thermal conductivity was enhanced by 84%. It was found that the thermophysical properties of NFs were more affected than their stability by adding surfactants. The results of this study can be used to produce G-NFs with optimized thermophysical properties and stability by using suitable surfactants.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the effect of different surfactants on the thermophysical properties and stability of water/ethylene glycol-graphene nanofluids. The results show that the addition of surfactants can improve the viscosity and thermal conductivity of the nanofluids, with a greater impact on the thermophysical properties than on the stability. These findings can be used to produce nanofluids with optimized performance.