Remarkably Improved Dispersion Stability and Thermal Conductivity of WO₃-H₂O Suspension by SiO₂ Coating

The long term dispersion stability for an improved thermal conductivity is a challenging issue that needs to be solved for heat transfer applications. Hence, this research investigated that a thin layer of SiO2 coating (2-5 nm) over WO3 nanostructures (SiO2@WO3) of different shapes exhibit superior dispersion (0.01%) stability for longer duration (∼3 days) as evident by steady zeta potential (-30 ↔ -60.70 mV), no significant change in particle-size (139 ↔ 147 nm) distribution, density (1.001 ↔ 0.988 g/cm3) and refractive index (1.335 ↔ 1.332) etc., are indicator for colloidal stability relative to bare WO3 nanoparticles and bulk SiO2 aqueous suspension which quickly settles down within 1-2 hours after 30 min sonication at 23 °C. Thin Si-OH layer over WO3 surface imparts superior hydrophilicity, larger surface area for effective solute-solvent (SiO2@WO3-H2O) interaction for improved colloidal stability showing no sedimentation and color change of SiO2@WO3 dispersion (0.01%) even after 3 days due to repulsive interaction between negatively charged Si-O- particles. Thereby, thermal conductivity is found to be quite stable (0.631 ↔ 0.618 W/m K) up to 3 days, whereas aqueous suspension of bare WO3 and SiO2 particles quickly settle down and thermal conductivity rapidly decreased to a value of 0.584 W/m K for de-ionized water further indicates the significance of SiO2 coating. Depending on the thickness of SiO2 layer and volume fraction of SiO2@WO3, a maximum of 8-10% increment of thermal conductivity was achieved where anisotropic WO3 displayed always more (∼5%) thermal conductivity than typical spherical nanoparticles.