Investigations on electrical conductivity of stabilized water based Al2O3 nanofluids

The electrical conductivity is an important property of nanofluids that has not been widely studied. To study both the effects of temperature and concentration, the electrical conductivity of water-based Al2O3 nanofluids with 12 nm diameter particles is measured. Conventional models, such as the Maxwell model and Bruggemann correlation, were considered for comparison and disagreement were noticed. Experimental results showed the Al2O3 nanofluids increased their electrical conductivity with increasing volume fraction as compared to that of the base fluid, as well as with temperature increasing. A stronger influence on volume fraction was noticed. Electrical conductivity measurements for these nanofluids indicate an enormous enhancement (390.11 %) at 60 °C for a volume fraction of 4 %in distilled water. Furthermore, at higher volume fractions, the electrical conductivity enhancement begins to level off, which is attributed to ion condensation effects in the high-surface charge regime. A 3D statistical analysis was also considered to obtain an empirical correlation.

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