Synthesis and experimental investigation on thermal conductivity of nanofluids containing functionalized Polyaniline nanofibers

In this paper, an effortless and fast novel route is proposed to synthesize Polyaniline nanofibers and nanofluids of Polyaniline nanofibers in DI-water are obtained with conventional two step method. Further, thermal conductivities of the synthesized nanofluids are measured in a wide range of temperature (10-80 degrees C) with transient plane source method. In the synthesis of Polyaniline nanofibers, Potassium Biiodate has been used as an oxidant and ultrasonic irradiation has been used for nucleation. SEM photographs confirm a short nano-sized fibril structure with average diameter similar to 80 nm and length similar to 2 mu m. The effect of particle loading (0.08%, 0.16%, and 0.24% in volume) is also observed on the thermal conductivities of synthesized nanofluids. Thermal conduction performance in nanofluids is increased appreciably due to higher crystallinity and morphological uniformity of reinforced nanofibers. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.