Enhanced thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanodiamond-nickel nanocomposite nanofluids

We report a new type of magnetic nanofluids, which is based on a hybrid composite of nanodiamond and nickel (ND-Ni) nanoparticles. We prepared the nanoparticles by an in-situ method involving the dispersion of caboxylated nanodiamond (c-ND) nanoparticles in ethylene glycol (EG) followed by mixing of nickel chloride and, at the reaction temperature of 140°C, the use of sodium borohydrate as the reducing agent to form the ND-Ni nanoparticles. We performed their detailed surface and magnetic characterization by X-ray diffraction, micro-Raman, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometer. We prepared stable magnetic nanofluids by dispersing ND-Ni nanoparticles in a mixture of water and EG; we conducted measurements to determine the thermal conductivity and viscosity of the nanofluid with different nanoparticles loadings. The nanofluid for a 3.03% wt. of ND-Ni nanoparticles dispersed in water and EG exhibits a maximum thermal conductivity enhancement of 21% and 13%, respectively. For the same particle loading of 3.03% wt., the viscosity enhancement is 2-fold and 1.5-fold for water and EG nanofluids. This particular magnetic nanofluid, beyond its obvious usage in heat transfer equipment, may find potential applications in such diverse fields as optics and magnetic resonance imaging.