Nanofluids: Opportunities, Challenges and Applications

The increasing demand for the new devices together with decreasing size, paves the ground for innovative technologies. The major problem with the use of micro particles – when dispersed in fluids - is their rapid settling. They also cause abrasion, clogging, and additional pressure drop in such systems.Nanofluids are a new class of technology-based heat transfer systems, engineered by dispersing nanoparticles in fluids. For example, figure (1) shows a bright-field TEM of copper nanoparticles (<10 nm) dispersed in ethylene glycol [1]. This nanofluid; with a little particle agglomeration can conduct heat up to one order of magnitude faster than what scientists had predicted for typical suspensions